Bay Area rallies to help LA fire victims with donation drives
Bay Area rallies to help LA fire victims with Saturday donation drives
In the wake of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, donation drives and fundraisers have been continuing to pop up all across the Bay Area. In San Ramon, two middle school students organized a large donation drive asking the community to drop off clothes and other supplies. At Harmonic Brewing, located just steps from The Chase Center, where the Warriors were taking on the Lakers, bar staff urged the crowd to set the rivalry aside for a day to do some good.
SAN FRANCISCO - In the wake of the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, donation drives and fundraisers have been continuing to pop up all across the Bay Area.
In San Ramon, two middle school students organized a large donation drive asking the community to drop off clothes and other supplies.
At Harmonic Brewing, steps from The Chase Center where the Warriors took on the Lakers, bar staff urged the crowd to set the rivalry aside for a day to do some good.
"It felt like a really good opportunity to recognize, even if there’s a problem in a different part of California, we’re still all Californians, and anything we can do up here to help those people affected in the areas of the fires, we’re happy to do it," said Harmonic Brewing General Manager Jimmy Lian.
The bar is hoping to funnel customer donations to victims of the Los Angeles wildfires through GoFundMe QR codes posted on table tops.
"I just remember the fires up here in Northern California, reminds me of that, and people losing their livelihood, their houses, it’s horrible, and people coming to help out, it’s a wonderful thing," said Warriors fan Mark Chin.
Sitting at a nearby table was Vik Bhasker, whose sister’s family lost their home in the Palisades Fire.
"Insurance companies dropped a lot of people recently, so a lot of people aren't covered, and so any money that they could use to rebuild their lives would be helpful," said Bhasker.
Meantime, in the East Bay, images of the devastation in Southern California inspired two middle school students to take action.
"It makes us just feel like the community really supports each other and everybody just comes together," said Pierce and Gautham, students at Pine Valley Middle School in San Ramon. "It made me feel bad, so I felt like I needed to take some action in this."
They reached out to their principal for help last weekend in an email
"He asked…'can I do something to help the victims of the LA fire. I have a couple ideas. Will you help me?' I usually don't message students back on the weekend, but when I saw that I did," said Sandy Kontilis, principal of Pine Valley Middle School.
With the help of Kontilis and the school’s leadership class, their efforts paid dividends. On Saturday afternoon, a constant stream of cars drove up to the school dropping off toiletries, games, and so many clothes that they eventually had to turn donations away.
"I'd like to say thank you so much. We really appreciate everybody who has donated and all the support we've gotten throughout the community," said Pierce and Gautham.
The students said the donations would be packed up and held in a storage facility until they could be driven down to LA and distributed to those in need.