Molly Barlow, 39, and her mother, Phyllis Ver Steeg, 63, were fatally shot at the family’s home on the evening of Jan. 28. Duran Barlow, 41, Molly Barlow’s husband, also died that night from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

It didn’t take long for the focus to shift from “What happened?” to “What can we do?” for the couple’s three young daughters, Brooklyn, Paige and Evie.

With many in the community asking how they can help, Katie Rees and Amanda Albright, Molly Barlow’s sister and best friend, set up a fund at Northwest Bank for the girls. Eventually, the donations will be put into a trust for the three girls.

There are three ways to donate to the fund for the Barlow sisters.

Checks can be made out to Rees or Albright with “Barlow Girls Fund” written in the memos and mailed or delivered to:

Northwest Bank

Attn: Sarah Niemand

10 N. 29th St.

Fort Dodge, IA 50501

A GoFundMe set up for the Barlow girls has more than $20,000 so far. That can be found at https://gofund.me/c22c9263.

A third way to donate was created this week. Donations can be made at any register at the Fort Dodge Hy-Vee, 115 S. 29th St..

“This community always pulls together during any sort of tragedy,” Rees and Albright said in a statement. “It truly does show that we are never alone even in the darkest days. Words cannot describe how thankful we are for every single person who has donated for our ‘Barlow girls.’ No one else matters more right now than them. This is all for them, their heartbreak is unimaginable. Because of each one of you, it makes this unimaginable time a little brighter. We are thankful for every single person’s outpouring of love and support in these days, weeks and months to come.”

While monetary donations can help secure the girls’ futures, money isn’t everything and it won’t bring back their parents or grandmother. So Maddie Lind, owner of Dodge Graphix, thought of another way the community can try to bring them comfort as they try to heal.

Lind, who didn’t personally know the family yet felt compelled to find some way to help, is creating a book for the sisters that contains notes of encouragement and memories from friends, family and community members.

“When healing from a heavy loss like this, there will be days you don’t want to talk about it; sometimes you just want to be alone,” Lind wrote on the Dodge Graphix Facebook page. “Connecting to others through written language is so incredibly healing for both the reader and the writer. You never know when certain words or memories are exactly what they need to hear even 10 years from now. Or memories from someone who is no longer around that would have been lost otherwise.”

A table is set up inside the south entrance to Hy-Vee with cards to write on and a basket to place them in. Hy-Vee Manager Brandon Wilson said the table will be set up and donations will be accepted at Hy-Vee for another two weeks.

If a community member is unable to stop at the grocery store, they can also email their notes to info@dodgegraphix.com with the subject line “Barlow Memories.”

The Dodge Graphix team will put together a draft of the pages and all of the contents of the book to be approved by the Barlow sisters’ guardians before it is printed.