Within days, the group blossomed into a Bay Area-wide community of people offering to donate items for fire victims.
A Petaluma man traveled to Los Angeles this week with a truck full of relief items for wildfire survivors and it all started with a single Facebook post.
Christopher Brown, 53, said Wednesday he’s been working nonstop to get much-needed everyday items to people who’ve lost their homes in Southern California since posting a message on his Facebook page days after the fires began.
“I’m not sure the exact day, but I saw the Pacific Palisades (fire) was raging and, we just went through the (hurricanes) on the other side of the U.S. and I wasn’t in a position to help then, being so far away,” Brown said. “And then I see this happening and one morning I thought, ‘heck, maybe they could use some donations down there.’”
The Palisades and Eaton fires have killed at least 28 people and destroyed more than 14,000 structures since they broke out Jan. 7.
A self-described former “hell-raiser,” the North Bay native said he now lives his life to be more healing, helpful and peaceful.
“The devastation that happened (in Los Angeles) brought me to tears,” he said. “I felt that I had to somehow do my part.”
Remembering how the community came together in the North Bay after the deadly 2017 fires, Brown reached out to friends on Facebook asking if anybody was interested in getting together items like bottled water, clothing, diapers, infant formula and toiletries to drive a truck of goods to victims in Los Angeles.
Response was slow at first, but after talking to a friend with a truck who was willing to help, Brown started the Facebook group “FOR THE FIRE VICTIMS” to organize donations for a truck run down south.
“I invited everybody I knew in to the group and what happened was we started picking up bigger donations,” Brown said.
Brown said friends of friends started seeing the page and within days the group blossomed into a Bay Area-wide community of people offering to donate items and pick up and store donations, including a 4-year-old girl in San Jose who donated her own clothes for the victims. People also offered to donate money for gas and other expenses for the drive down.
“People really came together, the group really helped,” Brown said.
One of those people was Santa Rosa’s Blake LaMudge, owner of Stacked Hauling and Removal, who volunteered the use of his truck and trailer to take items to Los Angeles.
“He made a Facebook post asking if anybody he knew had trucks or trailers willing to make the trip down there,” LaMudge said. “(Business) is slow because it’s winter, so I had the time, the means and I had the equipment, and I said, ‘why not?’”
To find organizations to partner with, Brown, a former commercial truck driver currently on disability with no background in emergency response, began researching groups working in fire relief.
“There’s always the Red Cross and FEMA, but I wanted to get (the donations) to people I knew were right in the mix, were there solely to help people and who weren’t getting paid to do it,” he said.
Brown eventually connected with 9thirtyLA, an event venue in Los Angeles that has transformed into an emergency shelter and hub for survivors. In addition to housing and accepting donations for survivors, the venue has been bringing in food vendors, a portable laundry truck and partnered with a local gym to provide free showers for people impacted by the blaze.
On Monday night, Brown, LaMudge and two other friends loaded up two pickup trucks and an extra-large trailer with the collected donations and drove to Los Angeles.
In the early morning hours of Tuesday they parked at the venue, expecting to wait until after dawn to begin unloading, until venue manager Marquis Horn saw the truck and invited them in to unload their haul.
“Four of the nicest, sweetest, kindest men I’ve ever met in my life,” Horn said of Brown and his friends. “Humility at its finest.”
Brown said people and local organizations such as the Petaluma Elks Lodge are still offering to send and store donations and he expects to make a second trip to Southern California.
LaMudge called Brown’s efforts inspiring. “Chris’ whole thing is that how we grow is by inspiring others, and its really cool to see what he’s done and it makes other people including my self want to be involved.”
While Brown does not know how long this donation drive will keep going, he said he will continue the effort as long as he’s able to with the help of his friends and the community.
“It’s taken a village,” he said. “I couldn’t have done any of it without people willing to step up.”
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