A few weeks ago, I journeyed up to LA for the day to try and help out some of the fire recovery efforts. I contacted several friends in LA to ask where to help and everyone sent me the same google sheet where I found a few places to volunteer.
I signed up for an afternoon shift at the Venice Family Clinic and tried showing up mid morning at Fluffy's Tacos in Altadena where it was listed they needed help sorting through donations. It turns out a Church next door took over operations and they had a massive amount of physical donations. They had so much stuff that our first goal was just to clear a path to a side door that had been blocked.
Storage bins and 55 gal trash bags filled with all sorts of things from clothes, kids toys, blankets, shoes, etc. lined the entire side of the property. There were about 8 volunteers plus staff and we were at a bit of a loss as to what to do with everything. People would wander through and pick through the piles, but there was so much that it was impossible to organize. After we cleared the area, the church staff didn't know their game plan to deal with everything long term, so we headed out around midday. It was great to see the generosity of the local community, but I was curious as to what the church was going to do with everything in the end.
My next stop was at the Venice Family clinic for an afternoon of distributing goods to local families in need. Many of these families were likely employed as gardeners, maids, cooks, etc. for houses that burned in the Palisades. They were handing out everything from food and snacks, to medical supplies, baby supplies, clothes, and toiletry items. This event had been going on all day when I showed up, and there was a line around the block. Hundreds of people had already been served, and we served hundreds more in only a few hours. Pallets of donations had been dropped off at the clinic. I personally passed out about half a pallets worth of blood glucose monitors for diabetes patients. There were at least a two dozen volunteers and another dozen staff on site coordinating this huge effort. It was extremely well run, and they had a very efficient assembly line set up. At the end, we spent about an hour breaking down the line, storing excess goods, and disposing of donations that were not fit to be given away.
At both of these events, I asked fellow volunteers how they found out about the events. Almost everyone had the same google sheet I was working at. Others had some sort of personal connection to the church or the clinic. I also was asking about the event organizers how they were managing volunteer response and if there was any centralized way to get the word out. Many of them were not even sure how people were finding the info to drop goods off or show up as volunteers. They were all relying on their own websites, social media, or word of mouth.
Seeing the community's willingness to help and huge generosity was very positive, and I hope that Civica USA can help make the best use of it in the future!
