CUMMINGTON — Last week Nancy Cole found herself in “crisis mode.” But she entered this week “crying and laughing,” in awe of what she called the “magic” of her community that rallied to buy the Cummington resident a boiler — raising $21,555 in less than 24 hours.

Like hundreds of her neighbors last week, an ice and wind storm knocked out power to Cole’s home from early Monday morning until Tuesday afternoon. During the night going into Monday morning she sat on the couch nursing her dying dog. The winds whistled into her farmhouse at 50 mph as she sat in her 45-degree kitchen, feeding a small fire she had burning since her boiler froze and cracked as the storm rolled in.

After hearing about Cole’s plight, her neighbor and friend, Steven Schiff, raced to start a GoFundMe to buy her a boiler. The campaign started last Friday and exceeded its goal of $18,000 in less than 24 hours. On top of that, “There is some cushion there for her too,” he said, commenting that the 144 donors had given more than $3,000 over the goal.

Schiff, who moved to the area from Brooklyn five years ago, described Cole as, “the type of person who drops everything she’s doing to help someone,” and added that the GoFundMe was “the perfect way for people to step up and help.”

Cole also lives with a few others, including a painter, a goat farmer, a retired nurse and her son, as she opened her house a few years back to those struggling to find affordable housing in Cummington. She said all of them were trying to stay warm by keeping their bedroom doors open, and two roommates would later leave due to the conditions.

She gives special thanks to the communities that she is a part of that were largely responsible for raising the funds. Both Cole and Schiff attributed the West Cummington Congregational Church and Alice’s Kitchen for circulating the word and being there for her in her need.

Other neighbors, who knew Cole was already having a hard time with her dog, also rushed to help her after the storm rolled in. Ben Brown delivered her a load of wood on Saturday after the storm because Cole’s pile of wood was small, damp, and under a tarp, she said — an act that she said was just another “reflection of the community.”

Cole attributes both the wood and the spray-foam insulation in her basement from keeping her pipes from bursting.

While her dog would end up dying last week, she remains “awestruck” by the generosity of her neighbors.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.