Bay Area support — ranging from donations, awareness efforts, and Palo Alto firefighters battling the flames — is helping families displaced by the wildfires that engulfed Los Angeles in January and February. According to KQED, there were 90 Bay Area fire departments helping to fight the crisis.
At Paly, junior Talia Boneh is helping to organize a fundraiser for students to walk on Paly’s track and raise money for donations. Sponsored by Paly Power Moves, a club where students walk on the track to relax before the school week, and partnered with the American Red Cross, the student initiative has been ongoing and will be wrapping up in mid-March.
“When the wildfires were first breaking out, (Paly Power Moves’) club advisor spent the weekend talking to the Paly administrators and the American Red Cross to figure out how to set up this fundraiser,” she said. “The (planning) started at the Power Moves meeting. Then, club members reached out for help and (to) get the word out. Some of my friends in the club, who are also in student council, were able to contact the student council’s teacher supervisors, executives, and some local firefighters.”
This student initiative has raised $4,600 so far — which is 46% of their goal of $10,000, according to Boneh.
“The main goal of the fundraiser is to send down support and financial aid to the people in L.A. who lost everything due to the wildfires, so all the money is going directly to the American Red Cross,” she said. “As of right now, we’re (still) getting there.”
Boneh is moved to see people from across Palo Alto come together to support those in need, a vision she hopes to expand through Paly Power Moves’ efforts.
“It’s been really great to see the community support (the people in L.A.) and see people unite together to send support and love down to Southern California,” she said. “(We want) to get our local community involved to help out our friends because I know that a lot of people and a lot of my friends have friends and family down in Southern California who were very affected by the wildfires. I think, as a community, it’s important to help others when in need.”
The Los Altos Mountain View Community Foundation has raised approximately $43,000 to donate to organizations that directly aid the people affected by the fires, according to Philanthropy Partner and Major Gifts Officer Kathy Lera.
Lera was a main contributor in outreaching to partner with organizations and has conducted many interviews to find groups that align with the community foundation’s values.
“We ran ads in the (Los Altos) Town Crier (and) sent out press releases to local publications, who were very welcoming and provided great coverage,” she said. “My job was to choose the organizations to donate to that fit with our goal. Our goal was to focus on getting help to those who were underserved.”
Additionally, their efforts include donating $10,000 grants to each of the three following organizations that Lera found: The Hope Crisis Response Network and Emergency RV, which both started because of the Paradise Fires, and the Pasadena Village. The Hope Crisis Response Network aims to reduce the paperwork that people have to do to receive help from these nonprofits. They register individuals and help them get the resources they need. Emergency RV sources recreational vehicles and stocks them with essentials to provide families a place to live. Pasadena Village is a seniors organization that helps members with basic needs like filling out forms, insurance papers, and other matters.
“These poor individuals that have gone through so much trauma shouldn’t have to file separate paperwork with so many organizations for help,” Lera said.
Dispatched to L.A., firefighters from the Menlo Park Fire Department and the Palo Alto Fire Department assisted in combating the crisis. According to The Almanac, the MPFD sent out two teams, with about 20 people per team, on Tuesday, Jan. 7 to the Palisades Fire and another team on Wednesday, Jan. 8. Firefighters from the PAFD were sent into the Palisades Fire on Wednesday, Jan. 7. Along with aiding the people in L.A., sending out firefighters allows them to build their skills and prepare for if this situation happens closer to the Bay Area. Other crews from Alameda County, Hayward, Fremont, and Oakland have also come together to continue putting out the fires.
The MPFD sent one engine, paramedic, and personnel into the fires from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s task force that performed search and recovery. Deputy Chief Kevin McNally was devastated to see the damage.
“It is always hard to see when people are suffering such a hard loss,” he said. “We worked hard to do what we could to minimize that and to make as much of a positive difference as we could. Our personnel returned after the majority of the fires were controlled, and they noted that they were putting out fires on multiple houses daily.”
