Volunteers hold shopping event for North Bay fire victims
Inside one of the hundreds of cardboard boxes set up in Maria Carillo High School’s parking lot, Stacy Sincheff found something that made her smile.
“This homemade,” she said holding up a long crocheted purple and grey blanket.
“I make these. It is really nice, because all of mine is gone.”
Sincheff lost her home in Coffey Park, along with all of her crocheted works, when the Tubbs Fire spread through her neighborhood on October 8.
“I will be living in Forestville when my trailer gets ready,” she said of starting her life again more than two months later. “I have a small trailer that I bought, because I can’t afford rent. I found someone who will let me stay on his land for $500 a month.”
Sincheff was one of approximately 500 people who showed up to shop through the thousands of clothing and home good items donated to North Bay Fire victims though the Sonoma County Fire Relief Fund.
“We’ve been able to raise tens of thousands of dollars-worth of gift cards to give to the fire victims,” said Sonoma County Fire Relief Fund’s co-founder Scott Adams.
Laura Simental was one of the afternoon shoppers. Simental, her husband, and two sons were displaced when their Mark West area apartment building burned to the ground. After living in hotels for more than a month, Simental’s family recently moved into a new apartment.
“I’m mostly looking for an area rug, so my boys can play with their toys on the floor,” said Simental.
She says donation events like this have helped her family move on, but she becomes emotional taking these trips for donations.
“We’re so grateful. We have received a lot of donations, gift cards. We just, we have to start all over. I’m just thankful we are okay.”
The Sonoma County Fire Relief volunteers were not asking for FEMA cards or identification to those who showed up. Instead, they asked the people who came to register their wish lists. People can adopt a fire victim family for the holidays by signing up at https://sonomacountyfirerelief.org/