MIDDLETOWN, Pa. – Three years ago, Frank and Ginny Graybill sold their dairy cows but kept their Restful Acres Farm near Hershey, Pennsylvania, with a vision to help others, to pay forward the support they received when they went through a barn fire and silo collapse in the past.

“We could have rented this easily. But we are keeping the system and setup — as is — for emergencies, like a barn fire. God has blessed us, and we want to make that blessing available to others,” Frank said in a July 29, 2022 Farmshine story.

Two and a half years later, that offer became reality. On Nov. 19, 2024, a fire destroyed the barn and parlor at Stoney Lawn Farm just five miles away near Middletown. Frank got the call from Adam Kopp, whose family he’d known for years.

“I think he didn’t believe me at first,” Adam recalls. His late father Jay came up through young farmers with Frank, and they both shipped their milk to Harrisburg Dairies. Milk from the Stoney Lawn herd still goes to Harrisburg Dairies today.

Adam and his wife Sandie milked 150 cows three times a day before the fire. On the night of Nov. 18, 2024, they had finished the 10 p.m. milking. By the early morning, before 3 a.m. milking, the barn was burning.

The cows were saved, but with no functional barn or parlor, they faced a desperate question: How do we get these cows milked?

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