Hello everyone, and welcome to an iHeart special event look for the Helpers by Rossident Scentives. And I feel so blessed to be with you all today because as a resident Overlay, I just want to help with my family. I want to help my friends and my community. At
this time. I don't know about the rest of you here in the City of Angels, but as I drive around, I do not only see the destruction or hear the stories of children who have lost their schools, parents who have lost their homes and jobs, but I hear and see the hope that comes in between. From the neighborhood is bringing food to their local place of worship, to a laundromat owner opening their doors for people who clean
the few coals they have. It is driving to the grocery store and seeing the car at the red light next to me filled with donations on its way to get people who have lost everything what they need. We have talked a lot about the tragedy, but today I want to share with you the people who are helping, the organizations that are offering resource to Welifire victims, and where to find them. If you're home and you're wondering how you can help from not only Los Angeles, but
anywhere you are hearing this. We're going to help you the answers. Today, we tell you where to look for the helpers. My first guest today is First Partner of California, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Hi, Hi, thank you for doing this. I wanted to because I know you've been touring all these different areas and you've been pretty busy, you know,
like dealing with meals and just helping people. I want to hear about stories you know that you're hearing from people firsthand that you go like, oh my god, that's really powerful. It touched my heart. Do you remember one specifically that just blew you away?
Well, yes, so many stories. A girlfriend of mine actually lost everything in the Altadena fire, and instead of just morning and licking her wounds and only focusing on herself, she launched a whole new website to an initiative linking people to childcare because we know that, I mean, you can't even attend to all of the administrative work required of dealing with you know, FEMA and SBA, loans and insurance and driver's life and all the things that you
know were potentially missing or needing to be addressed with, to get back on your feet and start the process the planning process of you know, obviously getting your home cleaned up and then the site cleaned up, and then
beginning to the process of planning and then rebuilding. And yet she was focused on making sure that these women predominantly had childcare, that their children could play, that their children could be distracted from the pain and suffering and actually be in community with other kids and being nurtured. And I have some semblance of normalcy.
That's incredible as a mom. You know your mom, I'm a mom. This happened so fast and it was just so unexpected and out of control. How do you talk to your kids and you explain to them. Listen, we live in California. We are used to natural disasters, you know, it is what it is. I come from Puerto Rico. We deal with hurricanes every single year, and every single
come August September. Everybody's like, oh my god, what if it's about a year for us, you know, because you never know, but at least it's interesting with hurricanes, you kind of like I have. The weather experts will tell you it's coming, it's coming. In this specific case, it was just like it's here, Oh my god, it just
became completely out of control. How do you talk to your kids about the tragedy and ways to help and just help them the mental health, you know, so they don't even fear that one mom, what did this happens again?
Yeah?
I mean, look, I think as a society, we've all experienced around the world, not just in California, not just in this country, trauma to varying degrees, and I think it's critical that parents are self aware of their own anxiety and their own nervous systems so that they can really anchor and hold children who are so vulnerable. My children, you know, we have four young kids, and I ended up bringing them down to Los Angeles on MLK Day
to volunteer because I needed them to be helpers. I needed them to be of service and to do their part in helping to anchor the Angelino community. And so that is really you know, one way that that I communicate with my kids is through action and through service
and through modeling that behavior simultaneously. I recommend that all families talk to their kids about their feelings and their emotions and understand that they're really complex, Like one of my kids is very very loud and aggressive when he's anxious, and another one will not speak but does sort of impish things and can't put language to what she's feeling.
And so every kid is different, right, and so which is why I love the resources that we actually are providing to all Californians, but in particular that are available to Angelina's right now, we have different apps that are all free, evidence based resources, best practices and access to actual therapists for children zero to twelve which is bright Life, and teens thirteen and up to Saluna. These are two apps again available online. With all these free resources to
address mental health. In this time period, we've also partnered with Childmind Institute. We have a whole initiative in English and Spanish, Healthy Kids Thriving Minds, which has been extremely powerful in normalizing sadness, hopelessness, anxiety, depression, all the fear that we're experiencing whether we live in Los Angeles or not, because again, as you mentioned, we've had wildfires across our state really since just you know, really when I kind.
Of woke up to.
The modern climate change era was with the Paradise fire that happened right before the governor came into office in twenty eighteen, so.
There are free resources.
There's also a positive parenting guide through Childmind that has a video series on coping with family and community stress, which again this is not just individual stress, this is like community stress when you're very much community in Altadena
or Palisades. So again I just I think then we've also just lastly, one of the things I try to do is introduce I've introduced my kids to breath work and to to you know, to basically give them their their own tools to settle their nervous systems when they're feeling pretty anxious. And the Governor's Advisory Council and Physical Fitness and Mental well Being has come out with a whole best practice series on breathwork, mindfulness, and daily movement.
So I'm always encouraging people when they can to spend time and nature to anger themselves with you know, different forms of mindfulness and breath work, and we actually give people the tools for that.
And so we're we've.
Been down in Los Angeles providing support and we'll try to do more because there are so many resources out there to help hold people while they're recovering from this horrific trauma. Yeah, it's church losing their jobs, losing their businesses, losing their communities.
Yeah, it's been pretty brutal. I want you to talk to us about California Love California is Strong.
Yes.
So California Love, California Strong is a campaign that we've just sawt launch around the fires to remind people that we're in this together, to uplift what's already been happening, which is this incredible love that Angelina's have for Angelina's, but that all of California has for California and frankly
the world. I mean again, we saw the president of Mexico send her firefighters and her guard and we've seen the Canadians send their folks in the other states, Oregon, you name it, have sent folks into help us recover and fight off this natural disaster. And so California Love California Strong is really about this whole concept that there is this love that we have for each other and it's being exhibited and that together that this is really
you know, this really is our strength, right. Our love and our care for our communities and for each other is really what makes us so strong as a state, and it's how we're going to get through this, and it's how we're going to get to the other side, you know, like say Phoenix rises from the ashes. In California, it is, and we'll do this and we'll do it better, and we'll obviously learn a lot from what happened and make changes so that we are safer and so that we can rebuild together.
Well, thank you so much, Jennifer for everything you guys are doing. We truly appreciate it. What an unfortunate situation, you know what, I know it's been. It's so sad. It's so sad. What great things come out of not great things, you know, And everybody's learning and we're going to rebuild as a community and as a city and come out stronger, I have no doubt.
Thank you so much, no, and I'm just so proud of that California spirit. It's really the California way, and it's what I think it's one of the reasons California really is the first in the nation and leads in the nation in so many areas because we are living together and thriving together despite all of our differences, and despite this suffering and you know, I just it gives me hope. I have so much hope because of the spirit.
And of course people are allowed to be angry, and of course people are allowed to be strong sad, but the fact of the matter is, like.
There are people.
This is a resilient community that has incredible energy and fortitude, and that gives me hope and it makes me believe in California more than I ever have.
Yes, I agree with you, and listen, this is special that we're doing. I've been able to interview so many people doing incredible things, you know, and it takes moments like this for people to unite and just come up with incredible ideas to solve problems and to help, you know,
and get inspired. You know, there's a lot of inspiration of people that never in a million years thought that they were going to respond to something and start helping and then get the immense desire to continue to help, because you know, it's like once you get a fever of like it feels good and I'm doing something good, you know you want to continue doing it. So it's great.
Yeah, no, it's great.
Thank you, And hopefully California Love California Strong campaign will launch officially whereby all Californians once a month at least on the first Sunday the month will give time, resources, love, and gratitude in their communities and elsewhere. And that's really the spirit of what we're trying to launch. But it's there already, it's in Los Angeles, and again that this is what gives me hope and makes me believe that we can have a future where more people are other oriented,
more people are community oriented, and more committed. More Canelo Fignes are committed to being helpers.
Awesome and mentally that well. Thank you so much, Nandie for have a great day.
You too, Thanks for everything.
Okay, that's us. Betty Chokachi is known for his Rolem Daywatch, but has really had his books on the ground helping out in the policy's community and beyond. As someone who lost his home in the twenty eighteen Wolves fire, he knows exactly how it feels to lose everything and have to start over.
How are you doing?
Hi, Thank you so much David for doing this. Truly appreciate it.
Hi, You're so welcome. I'm so excited.
You guys are doing something, you know, to highlight you know what people have been doing around the city to help people and help the animals.
Yes.
Absolutely, And my understanding is that you lost this happened to you in twenty eighteen, and the Wesley fire is correct.
In the Wool fire.
Yeah, we have our rental property out here on point two is a beautiful house that this.
He was a script supervisor I met on bay Watch. He was in his seventies at the time.
But it was like an acre and a half all fruit trees and berries like, and we were living in this beautiful it was like a treehouse.
Kind of thing, and I've renovated the whole bottom and we just made it ours.
And my daughter was three at the time, so we when that fire happened, it was the same time.
It was so fast. By the time I tried to get out here to get.
Anything out of it, they were already at that mindatary evacuation and so we lost everything, and you know, it's just it's it's I felt obviously much worse for my friend Tom Moore who lost the place because that was the sanctuary.
That's where he found the East of the World.
But it's it's tough, and you know, at that time, what happened was all the firefighters were spread so thin, and again there's a fire station fifty yards from that house where that house was, and they were gone obviously, and there was no water.
So since then, I was gonna talk about it later, but I'll just bring him now. There's a a guy here named.
Andrew Oh my god, no, keaking Gibbs, who started this volunteer fire brigade because people have noticed, especially in this remote area of Malibu, and it's not that remote, but it's a little bit cut off that if you you're not resourceful and you're not aware and like capable of taking care of yourself, your friends, your family, or your neighbors, there's a good chance you will you know you're you're in serious danger with something like that. This happens because
it happens so fast. Yeah, I mean, we saw like how fast that Palace States fire moved. And so they started a volunteer fire brigade. That's a legitimate fire brigade. It's like sixty hours of training. And I actually applied in November and I'm just waiting to hear back. But since the Franklin fire happened, and this happened like they've been so busy.
I think they're yeah waiting, so I'm hoping to be to become a member of that.
But in the meantime, yeah, I've been busy, like helping best Friends as much as possible.
And I'm assuming you I'm not assuming. I know you're probably missus helping giving lots of words of encouragement because you went through it so you know how it feels. And as a dad, I am a huge animal advocate as myself, and I was so happy when I learned that you're helping animals, Yeah, in a very very very incredible way. And your daughter, how old is your daughter now?
Thirteen thirteen? So talk to me about this experience that she's doing with you, and what is it that you're doing with these animals and find them places for them and help them try one location to the next.
So what they've done Best Friends Animal Society and along there are some other great groups because I worked on a flight yesterday and this is another great group also that should be mentioned as a pause for likee K nine,
they do a lot of amazing stuff. So, but best Friends has kind of they're really their main goal is to achieve like no kill shelters through the entire LA by the end of twenty twenty five, which is if you see the numbers, they've reduced it by something like sixteen millions so far, and they're really taken a hard like push at that. I've been an ambassador for them since the year two thousand. I helped because I was
an actor and had some visibility. There's a big pet adoption at the labret Tarpits and these they said, hey, would you come walk these dogs down the runway and try and get them adopted because if they don't get adopted that day, they'll be euthanized the next set the next day.
Yeah. Wow, I hate to say this, but I like dogs more than humans, so I agree.
It's okay, no offense. Human makes me love you too, but animals they're very special.
Yeah.
So that was my first introduction to them.
And then we walked around that event and my wife and I saw this pit lab mixed and that was our first rescue and ever since then, I've kind of been an ambassador for them. So they were really smart, like they pre as soon as these fires started, they
took action. They went into motion right away and started They knew they'd be a huge influx of animals coming from whether it's they're they're just like fleeing and they're like now they're separated from their families, or a lot of families have had to surrender their their dogs because of the displaced or a lot of families unfortunately can't even afford to deal with even like the process of surrendering.
They're in a place of survival mode where they're just like letting their dogs go out in the wild.
Oh my goodness. Let me ask you, how can people help? You help them?
The best way people can help is to go foster pet, like even for a couple of weeks, because when you foster a pet, you take it out of the caged environment. You get to take pictures and videos of it in
a home environment. That's the real dog, you know, and then a potential family gets to see that dog like, Okay, that's what the dogs I get home instead of when they show up at the shelter and it's all afraid and timid and like what we're kind of setting So fostering, adopting, donating to the food pantry.
Best Friends right now has a food pantry down in West la.
You can look it up there where if you need pet food, cat food, any kind of supplies there for free, or if you want to make donations to that pantry, that's another way to help. They also started a foster program on Facebook best friends did.
Those are like the main ways to help?
Okay, perfect, Thank you so much. I truly real appreciate, appreciate everything you're doing. This is amazing. As a dog love myself, we need help, so please please it's a wonderful thing to foster a pet. It helps them, it helps the family. It's much needed. So thank you so much.
Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome.
Now I'm going to welcome Randy Jafee, who, along with her sister in law Jenny, they launched the Ali Lost Stoppy Project, which aims to help replace beloved items like stop animals, toys, and blankets for kids who were displaced by devastating Los Angeles area fires. How are you nice meeting you?
It's so nice to thank you so much for having me on.
Of course, thank you for doing this. We truly appreciate you on what you're doing. And my understanding is that Okay, so you and your sister in law correct Jenny, you live in New York, so it's three thousand New York. You're three thousand miles Jersey, three thousand miles away. Pretty much. The fires are in California. Tell me what motivated you to say, you know what, I'm over here, that's over there, but I want to help.
So I'm a mom and I'm also a childlife specialist, which nobody really knows who we are what we do, but we support kids and families through really challenging life experiences. Most of us work in pediatric hospital settings and help kids cope with hospitalization, prep them for surgeries and procedures
and things like that. My job as a childlife specialist, I sometimes take kids back into the operating room when parents can't accompany them, and I help them cope while they're receiving at a season when they're going to sleep. And the number one thing that I always say is, let's bring that cozy inside, Let's bring that stuff animal,
let's bring that lovey, let's bring that blank to. Whatever is going to make that child feel safe and comfortable when they're going into the operating room is what we need. Once the child falls asleep, I take that comfort in and I bring it like it's gold back to the waiting rooms. It's for the parents, and I tell them how their childs did falling asleep, and I give them that precious comfort I'm over.
And it brings them comfort.
So when the wildfire started, I was devastated.
Like I think so many of us were across the country.
And I found myself wondering what would I got if my house was on fire and it was my sons, my three year old's mama cheetah, that's like this ten year old thing that was from like my daughter's school store, and there's no chance that I'd ever be able to
find it again. And I thought about, like all of these devastated children who have experienced probably hopefully the biggest tim and they'll ever experience in their life, And not only do they not have their home, and they don't have their familiar routine and school and all of these things, but they don't have a comfort item to even help them to feel any sort of.
Normalcy or coping.
Of course, hopefully, thank god they have their parents and their family and everybody's safe, but you know, a three year old, a four year old, of five year old, an eighteen year old feel safe when they have their comfort.
You know, I'm going to tell you a quick story. Yeah this is not about me at all, but this is how I can relate. Years maybe nine years ago, before I had my second child, we lost our home. Not because of a fire, do We had a one of the living rooms. The ceiling collapsed and if they found us, best us. So it was self contained for whole god knows how long. But when that thing happened,
it burst. So I remember coming from the gym and there's a contractor and the insurance company and they were like checking the air quality and they realized there's massive as bestos. This house is contaminated. You guys have to evacuate immediately. So we lost the house completely. What I'm telling you that I never went back to my house as it was because we couldn't because it was toxic.
And picked up my daughter from preschool. She was maybe three and a half four years old, and it'said, Mamita, we're gonna take we're gonna go to grandma. We can go back home because there's been an issue and you're never gonna go back home, but it's okay, we're gonna get you everything. And she could have. Her little mind couldn't comprehend, and all she kept talking about was, well, what about my Blanky and Ellie?
Ellie.
Ellie was a little stuffed animal. And it was brutal and devastating to explain to her you're never gonna get to hold Blankey, you're Blanky and Ellie again. And it was a it was a big deal for her, you know. So I understand these all these fires and people that lost everything in an instant to talk to their children, you know, whether they're three, fourteen, twelve, seven, it doesn't really matter, and explaining to them life as you knew just change dramatically, you know, and to try to keep
them at peace and at ease. People, so you're specifically going back to you. People will email you or they will send you a picture of an item and you will replicate you will find that same exact thing, and you send them over to the families.
Yeah, so the power of the internet.
We have an intake form on our on our Instagram page where families can fill out all of the information that we need to help find the set animals, So any pictures, any descriptions. Unfortunately, some families don't have pictures of the stuff animals. Most still any links if they got it from a website even five days ago or
five years ago, any helpful information. And then we posted to our Instagram and the internet just goes crazy sloofing, and we have lots of people that just will find these things in like under five minutes.
It's unbelievable.
Wow.
A father reached out to me and he said, my twelve year old, he's older, but he really misses this one stuffs animal.
He was born in Amsterdam, which from the zoo in Amsterdam.
I looked sort I'm sure you can't find it, and I posted it and literally within ten minutes, somebody reached out to me and said, I'm a former Angelino, I live in Amsterdam.
I love fifteen minutes from the zoo. I'm taking my kids.
We're going right now to the zoo to get this oh my to get this stuff's animal. And it's being sent to this family. And when I told the dad, he was like, what, oh my god, oh my god, You've found.
It, like he just couldn't believe it.
And the truth is that people are so eager to help California, like people just want to feel like they're making a difference because we feel so helpless.
It gives me goose bones. That's amazing what you're doing. Let me ask you, how can people contact you, reached you to be able to help you help them?
Honestly, we're doing so much through our Instagram, which has been really powerful and just posting the images and we're getting messages through there, so that's, you know, really a great way to get in touch is just through our Instagram and we're reading all the messages. It's only me and my my friend Amanda, so we are definitely we're getting through it, but it's just us. So we're actually headed to La tomorrow, which we are so excited about.
We're going to meet some of the families we're working with.
Oh that's correct, and we're excited. Awesome, And then tell me the handle for you Instagram is La Underscore Lost Underscore stuff, the Underscore project. Correct.
So it was, but we realized that this project had legs and we want to help families just like yours.
How old your daughter, by the way, you said she was three and a half.
How old is she's now? She's thirteen, so she's a teenager.
And she's still missing that stuff down out because we can find it.
I swear on you know, I'm going to be saying that you have a picture.
I am.
I am dead serious because our hope is to expand this and to get reach every single family we've ever been touched by a fire or a flutter or anything that's happened that you've lost that comfort item. Our goal is to really take this kind of international that is so beautiful. So it's lost underscore, stuffy underscore project.
That's what it is now.
Thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate you. You're amazing.
I appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me on.
Of course, bye bye, take care bye. So this next story really got me. Darrek Coleman is the wife of a firefighter at the fire Station sixty nine the Pacific Poli Seats. I want you to hear this incredible story. So I'm just going to welcome her and her friend Michelle to the show. Hi, ladies, Welcome, Hi. Thank you so much for doing this. So Darah, this is really I have so many questions for you, ladies, because I am fascinated about about the whole thing. But first I
want to start with you Zarah, you are married. Your husband is a firefighter. Right, we all know that these fires were so severe and just almost supernatural what happened to the city. As a wife and also a mom, right, you have your husband going to work every twenty for seven because it became an old day. Yeah, but when you go. I have a husband that is a police officer but is an actress, so he goes to he plays. He's acting, so he comes back home after he wraps
your case. You actually have somebody on duty for real, And how do you handle like going to bed and even navigating as a mom telling your kids, daddy is going to save some lives and save the community and it's very dangerous, but he'll be back. How do you deal with that?
Oh? Yeah, that's it's definitely tough. But Chase and I've been married for about fourteen years now, So I like to tell other young firewives that you kind of get used to it, You get used to them being gone. And I know that his work is so important, meaningful to the city that he serves, So I mean, I just feel so honored to be a part of that, to be able to support him at home so he doesn't have to worry about anything but what he's doing
out there. But as far as the kids, I mean, my kids are older, they're nine to twelve, so they are they understand a little bit more. I can explain a little bit more that you know that daddy's job is dangerous. However, he is very talented and skilled, and he works with other talented and skilled firefighters. So we just pray and we have faith that he's going to be safe and that he will you know, come home
and be the amazing daddy he is. And he gets to come home and gives them hugs and cuddles and stuff. So yeah, it's it's it was tough early on, but I feel as like a veteran firewife, like there's definitely been some challenges that you just kind of lean into it because you see the goal overall of how important his job is and how is.
It feeling now that he his job is to have, you know, and and protect a community and when you think about the policys, most of it is is pretty gone, you know, So mentally, how is he dealing with knowing that he community that where he works at it's just so bad right now?
You know, the first that first week obviously was was so tough, and just hearing from him the first few days how defeated heart he sounded on the phone. It was heartbreaking because I knew that he felt shattered by what he was seeing out there, because that was his
city that he is committed to serve. So yeah, overall, just you know, it's it's really heartbreaking thinking about everyone that's been displaced and been affected by the fires, because as you know, like we probably all know someone that's been affected. But yeah, it definitely was was tough those first couple of weeks of having to understand the emotional tour moil that he probably has was going through during that time.
Okay, and I'm gonna now go to you, Michelle. What was your first reaction to the whole idea?
Well, this is what's funny is that it was actually I opened up my app and it was a Facebook mommy's group in LA and she posted a punch list of what she needed. And I've worked in in tior design and like project management scarily for now like thirty years, and I saw her list and I.
Was like, I can do that.
I can do that.
I can get the all tummer, I can get the mattresses. I know I can hustle and get this done, and I said, I wrote on there, I got you a messaging you directly, and I'm telling you it went. I worked for them for two weeks straight, basically full time, like as a pro bono volunteer, and.
In that.
It's been the most rewarding thing. Her Chase.
Her husband is like one of the most honorable, amazing people. All of these guys are the same. They're just incredible human beings.
And I saw the need of.
I basically segued them into being my clients a bit of like advocating for them and listening to what they needed there. And I saw that they needed to get all that smoke damage out and at the time, the whole system was so overwhelmed that they needed our assistance in that first week or so after. So it's like the second phase of recovery for them, and it's basically their lives are changed, like all of us are. Every single one of our preschool friends is displaced right now,
I have a five year old son. Every single one of them is displaced either, like I think ninety percent of them. One in Rustic Canyon didn't lose their house, but they're displaced still because of the evacuations. But every single one of our friends lost their homes and I just happened to move, so I'm housed. And I joked as a single mom, it's like you can't stop a single mom with a good night's sleep, no preschool germs
or a cup of coffee. And that's sort of like they caught me on a good week and I was like, I can do this for them, and here we are. And then I brought in David Chokichi because he's married to a very good friend of mine, and he tagged team with me and we pulled up their carpet and then we started getting phone calls from other captives.
Like how did you get this done?
And then I started like we started.
Hooking up or trying to figure out how to help them, but find like now the foundation, LAFD Foundation is on board, and I'm happy to help them and there's a huge need, Like I went to the city hall last night in the at Santa Monica City College to stay informed of like the next steps, and David inspired me a lot because he's been in the public sphere for a long time, and he gave me really good advice about just like this is the time I.
Just spoke to him and he was just amazing and all the work is doing with animals is yes, really incredible. How can people help you, ladies? You know, because for all the listeners that they're like from Los Angeles or even far away, and they are asking asking how can I help? How can we what else is needed for you guys to continue this mission?
Well, for me, I feel like just you know, there has been an outpouring of physical donations to the fire station. So I think at this time, if people want to contribute just contributing to the fire Foundation, and if they want to specifically help Station sixty nine, they can make a notation to you know, to contribute allocate their funds to Station sixty nine.
There's a drop down menu on the website where you can choose your stations.
Just interjecting as.
Right right now, you're right, and then long term, I mean, another organization that is so dear to our hearts as a fire fan is the Widow's Orphans and Disabled Firefighters. They're an organization that helps fire families long after the crisis is over. So that's also really important. So just two organizations that would be helpful.
Beautiful, Well, thank you so much, ladies. I truly appreciate all you're doing. And yeah, I think listeners are going to really relate to what you guys are doing and get inspired, you know, and encouraged to also help. Thank you for having me, of course. Bye bye. Now we have doctor Paan McGee, the executive director and principle of Policics Charter High School that has suffered immense damage displays in the student body.
Hi.
Yeah, how are you?
Thank you so much for doing this today? Yeah, yeah, thanks for thank you for doing it, of course, no, I love it. Let me ask you explain what happened to the school exactly.
So.
Palastage Charter High School, along with so many arts and homes and businesses in the Palisades, was severely damaged by the Palisades fire. On our campus. We're fortunate that our historic front of the campus buildings are still intact, but more than twenty classrooms at the back of our campus, along with our study center, our media lab which was brand new, along with computer labs, completely wiped out by the fire.
That's unbelievable how many students have been displaced.
So we have a student body of three thousand students and they come from all over Los Angeles. Approximately six hundred live in the immediate palisades. All of those students are displaced, as well as others that live in surrounding areas. So at this point, I would say all of our students are kind of scattered while we work to make sure that we can bring our school back together. Currently
we're using remote learning. That not ideal for students who came through the pandemic, and you really do want to be in person with their peers and with the teachers. So much more effective for learning and just for social emotional well being.
I know, I agree. It's it's it's absolutely devastating. And let me ask you, how long do you think it's going to take for you guys to be able to rebuild. And there's going to be any health concerns with having the kids back on campus.
God, well, we will not return until we are absolutely sure that it's a safe environment. I think we're in that process now, you know, going through that whole examination and mitigation.
And campus is clean.
As I said, the front of the campus could absolutely be used once it's cleaned, but it does have to be thoroughly clean. We'd never want our students are staffed to be in a safe space that's not safe. But once we have that, I mean, I think we may be able to return sooner, maybe rather than expected, so we can use the front of our campus while construct is happening at the back to restore the buildings that were destroyed.
You know, in situations like this another the kids are homeschooled, the life changes, it went from one day to the next, you know, this situation was just absolutely horrific, you know, and to be able to deal with these kids when it comes to their mental health and how to navigate. I know, parents, of course have their responsibility, and I'm sure they do, you know, talk to them and you go to the proper therapists, you know, a psychologists or as a mom you know myself, you know, we talk
to them. But as a school that this came so unexpected and the kids are not homeschool but I'm assuming the parents and the teachers are all relying on the community of the police school. How do you guys deal with their mental health?
Well, yeah, we've been really fortunate.
I mean, our school has always really put mental health at the front of a lot of things that we do. Students have shared with us how important that is, and so we really tried, even before the pandemic to invest heavily having a mental health support team, you know, making sure that we're constantly sharing resources. This was, as you said, so unexpected. We've had to, you know, pivot, make sure that we're providing more resources that are out and available
in the community and unfortunately all around us. I mean, there's so many entities that are providing those resources, but you know, for us, for the parents and the students who are staying connected with us, they're absolutely wonderful mental health resources, counselors that students can speak with, parents can speak with, and also to help make connections that may be closer to their homes so that they have those resources to follow up with while they're trying to get settled.
I mean, there's so many homes and families where you know, they don't have their home, and then others where they've been impacted in other ways. So just really trying to pull together as a community to make sure that we're all working together to support each other absolutely, to support our kids.
Talk to me about raise Polly, you know, the fundraiser. I want people to know how to about how to help you guys.
So raise pally is easy to access if you you can either go to the there's a special link, or just go to our school website palihi dot org and there's a pop up that will come up immediately that will show you, you know, take you directly to the donation link. We are working to raise funds to make
sure that we're able to relocate. It will be a temporary location, but you know, doing everything we can to get our students back in person while we work through these other pieces of cleaning our campus and restoring it. You know, we need we need help as far as
providing extra field trip buses. We want to make sure that during this period when we're having to rely on virtual instruction, we're still providing lots of opportunities for kids to be engaged and connected out in the community, because that's what's really so important to them and what keeps them really motivated and coming and being engaged in school.
You know, obviously it's athletics or our athletics are ongoing, our clubs are ongoing, our performance, all of those are things that we're keeping happening even where they're in this virtual moment and it kind of displays from our campus.
That's amazing and all of those resources.
So, however, the community a if you can let us know, if you're a studio and you're open to having students come in and look and see what's going on, our media class would so appreciate that. And the same is true with all types of hands on activities museums, but also helping us fund ways to get the kids there, whether it's providing buses or just donations that help us get kids to athletic events or whatever may be open and available out in the community.
That's great. Thank you so much for that. That's very specific and that's what we needed. People want specificity so we know exactly what to do. So thank you so much. Fun, We really appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for having us on, and thank you for supporting Pali Hi.
Of course, Neuro Weinstein and Kelly Sawyer Patrikov are the founders of the organization Baby to Baby, which delivers basic necessities for children in underserved communities. They were named one of Time magazines twenty twenty four most influential people and are here to share with us how Baby to Baby has been helping in this crisis. Hi ladies, how are you? Thank you so much for being here with us.
Of course, thank you for having us.
So I'm going to refer to my notes over here. Baby Too Baby has distributed over six million emergency supplies in response to the LA fire crisis. How have you been able to coordinate? Because there's a lot, It's just an incredible amount, all of this. How do you make it happen?
Baby to Baby all year long, for over a decade, supplies basic essentials to children around the country. We support a million children per year, so when something like this happens, we are prepared because it is our everyday work. While we're a national organization, we are very much born in Los Angeles and it's our hometown, so we have very deep relationships and know how to reach vulnerable kids at
these moments. We have a network of four hundred and seventy partners in Las Angels alone, and that spans evacuation centers, resource centers, homeless shelters, hospitals, schools, and so we were able to reach out to them immediately.
And listen and find out what their needs were.
In these fires, which are always very specific to children, like diapers and wipes and formula and hygiene items and cribs and car seats and strollers. And then we were able to immediately dive into action, sending our trucks filled with these supplies into in and around Los Angeles.
That's incredible. As a mom, and you guys are moms as well, how is it? How do you feel? Because the organization is doing incredible work. Incredible work, Like you said, you have a lot of resources and you've been very blessed, you know, to have the distributors and the people that are supporting you on behind you. But right at a human level, when you see these kids that they're in need and you guys are able to provide them and you hand that to that child, what does it mean
to you? Ladies? When you see that phase? You slide up.
We were in Pasadena this weekend at a distribution and you know, we're distributing basic supplies, basic emergency essentials like diapers and formula and gets, some warm coats and clothing. But we also try and you know, add some joy for the children. So we build a toy shop and we do distribute toys, even though perhaps they're not an emergency essential. But to us, we want to see kids, you know, have smiles on their faces. We want to bring back a little joy into their lives. And the
resiliency of the children is amazing. They are smiling, they are hugging, and they're giving you high fives. They're really incredible. And so as a mom just seeing that, you know, we're both so it feels so proud that we can help in any way right now.
That's incredible. People listening, you know, they're asking themselves how can I help? What can I do? You know, and we're facilitating all this help, like you, guys, how can people help bigitter Baby.
It continues to be true that donating money is the most helpful, whether to baby to baby or any other amazing organization on the ground right now. And the reason is is that it allows organizations like ours to do our work the most efficiently, and efficiency and timeless timeliness matters a lot in a disaster. But in other ways, we do accept big palatized corporate donations, and that means
in our high need items. So that means that a corporation can donate to us thousands or hundreds of thousands or millions of high needed items like bottles of shampoo and soap and cans of formula.
And clean water.
We are not, unfortunately, taking individual donations like a gently used or even new item of clothing from an individual. And again, while we know how incredibly well intentioned that is, it burdens our system. And I think that's for almost every organization in this space, and it doesn't allow us to do our most efficient work when we're getting in
these palatized donations in such a high pressure time. So people can donate money if they are a corporation, they can donate in these larger, more organized ways, and then they can also volunteer at our headquarters if they.
Are in fact local.
Amazing, Well, thank you so much, ladies, what you do, it is pretty incredible, and we so much appreciated. Thank you, Thank you. I love love this girl. She has so much energy that it pops out of your television screens. She's using every little bit of it and she's helping communities in a lay. If you are part of her contact list, let me tell you she's gonna be calling you very soon. Because there's nothing know, things slowing down GMI on a mission. Hi guys, JINEMI, thank you so
much for doing this. Yes, of course, thank you for having me is. I'm a big fan and I'm even more now with all this work, incredible work that you're doing. I don't know how you do everything, but you do it all and you do it well. And I cannot wait for you to talk to me and to the audience about what you're doing the Dream Center. How can people help your involvement all of that.
Yes, well, first off, thank you, sorry, thank you for so much. I'm in the middle of mom mode and figuring out life like everybody else here in La So I just appreciate you like being able to cover something like this, and we need the encouragement and we also need direction to guide people on what they can do.
So I'm super here.
Love it.
So talk to me. What have you been doing? How can people help you continue to help? Talk to me?
Yeah.
So, at this very moment, the great news is that it rained we've been wanting that. We needed that more than anything, and it revived everybody. It reminded everybody to keep strong and be resilient and to keep doing what we've been doing. I think that The most amazing visual I've ever seen in all of the twenty five years that I've lived in LA is seeing the city come together in every way possible. I never received one, No, it was more of how and how much LA poured
when it came to outreach servitude. This morning, I was just talking to one of the leading celebrity facialists in Los ang Angeles, Shawne. Darden, who graciously offered pampering for the first responders, the females who have not had a day off since the day of the fire.
I can't even book an appointment to get in with Seohn opening up her services.
Because everybody, no matter what you have, you can give, we all need to help in some way. And so the number one thing I would say I'm encouraging anybody to help is still donate essentials are needed on the daily.
I would speak for.
The La Dream Center, one of the organizations, one of the only organizations in LA that has not turned away donations because they have a line full of hundreds of cars every single day from six am all the way tom driving through getting donations of toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, diapers, baby formula, clothing. We're good at I think clothing across LA being one of the fashion capitals of the world. We've covered that, but we still need essentials as far
as the daily living. The same things that you order daily from Amazon or Target, when you stop by Target, you stop by Trader Joe's, those are the same.
Things that we need in Altadena.
At this point, I'm not only continuing to donate and telling everybody to donate to Dream Center, but I'm also receiving donations for hot meals to be delivered in Altadena because at this very moment, the families still don't have power or running water, and they have strict rules to not cook and they have to be in.
Perfume is six pm.
So if you can imagine, first of all, Altadena's freezing at three point thirty pm. I was there the other day and it was fifty degrees. Well, imagine these families. If they've lost their house, they're they're bunking with some of the families that haven't lost their houses, their neighbors in that area, or if they haven't lost their house, they're securing their house because there is a string of professional looters that have camped out around Altadena to infiltrate
the homes. I think to date, I think about fifty two different looters have been arrested by Now wow.
And let me ask you something. Should we be encouraging like I'm assuming the restaurants are showing not correct, a lot of restaurants are actually donating meals and chips are cooking. Like is there more food needs? Should we knock on doors more restaurants and people to discos.
Yes, that would be amazing if I sent out an Instagram post saying, any local restaurants in Altadena.
If you're working, you're in business.
We want to donate to you so that you can make meals or if you would like to donate meals, we'd love to take it. So Vedos Restaurant, a long running family owned Mexican restaurant, has been incredible feeding Altadena.
Another restaurant was called Womb's Kitchen.
They've been a Chinese restaurant that's been feeding Altadena as well. So, yes, any local restaurants in Altadena, in Pasadena, anywhere in the surrounding area, let's keep the business alive.
And if you also want to help support all of the.
People that have been affected, not just people who aren't who have lost their homes, but the service people that used to help service fee homes or the businesses around Altadena or Pasadena.
I have a Google doc that I can forward to you.
Babysitters, gardeners, dog walkers, every deep type of person that has been helping all of these displaced families.
Our job right now. If you are supporting LA, if you're from.
LA, or if you're just a friend to LA, we need people to help keep the eco system alive.
You know, not only can you donate, but you can hire these people that have lost their jobs.
You can help to contact the LA Dream Center who are organizing clean up crews and they're going out in the next couple of weeks to help clean up all the ash and the debris because as you can see this, there's no way this is going to be cleaned up because we're already short on firefighters and service workers.
To be able to mean this, we need actual people to help.
So the great thing about LA is whatever you can do, it is it is absolutely necessary and it can be welcomed.
That's incredible, Gennima, You're amazing. It's so much stuff that is needed, guys, and you know what you know what happens, I think with people because oh, the fires are under control, Okay, so the news they're not playing it as much. Therefore, oh it's okay, it's gone, and people forget. And the reality is this is something that is going to continue the struggle all these families. It's going to contribute for a while, So it's not a one time thing and
then I did my part and I'm out. You know, it has to be an ongoing effort because it's going to take them a while to be able to get back to what they consider normal.
Yeah, and I want to emphasize when you say a while, we're talking about something close to maybe ten years to rebuild. I mean we're talking about complete communities and lives that are going to be transformed as of now. You know, to rebuild the structures is one thing, But to bring the community back together so that it feels safe and it's thriving, that all depends on us.
So we don't want people to lose jobs that they have to move away.
We don't want to make housing so unaffordable that people
can't afford housing. These are all things that we have to mindfully all do our parts so that we don't change what the ecosystem was in LA, but we instead make it stronger because we band together, but all together, we need to all recognize that there needs to be grace across the board, whether you work for an insurance company or you can hire an employee that has been displaced, or you can be mindful about just the community being shaken up and just be more gentler as we move
around each other in this uncertain time.
Yes, let's get do our part.
That's amazing. Well, thank you, Jini Mine, thank you so much. Please follow her on Instagram your next level, your next level, and we hear you and thank you for all you do.
Is of course, and donate to Dream Center.
Please donate to Dream Center, call them, make financial donations. They are not only accepting donations to hand out to displace families, but they shelter actual families who have lost their homes as well. At this very moment, I think they've got about thirty families that they're housing. So just
please please do support Dream Center. If you want to pick one place that is working three hundred and sixty five days a year and plug in and help out whatever you can give, Like Shanny Darted maybe it's a facial to one of our first responders.
There you have it, well, Thank you so much, mama, have a great day. Avasasomation is providing marginalized populations with footword to encourage healthier lifestyles. Its founder, Drinking Mendiaz, is out in the street handing out sneakers to those who have none. Let's find out more about this story. Hi Eranging, Hello there, How are you good and yourself?
I am good.
Thank you so much for joining this amazing special that we have going here to help people. I want you to talk to me about your story because I believe that this is very close to you in terms of like you remember the time that when you had somebody give you two pairs of shoes and that moment, I'm assuming we're in marching for life.
Yeah, it changed everything, you know, in different phases of my life. It changed you know, being a kid that couldn't afford shoes. It changed my confidence, and then you know, into my teens in early twenties, you know, it changed my the way I dressed and how I put outfits together, and you know, confidence even through through my twenties. But
then you know, in my thirties sneakers. They didn't mean the same thing as they once did, so I, uh, yeah, I started questioning everything, you know, sadness and just my career, like everything wasn't where I wanted to be, you know. And I had all these shoes in my in my collection, and I just wasn't happy. And you know, one one day I decided, uh to give them away and use my you know, my passion for photography to tell the
journey of the sneaker. So they started in my collection and then they went to somebody else that could use them more than me, and I changed directions and with the idea and just you know, deciding to give away my collection. Uh that that was the birth of have a Soul.
Do you remember a specific moment of you giving away a pair to some kid and the reaction that the kid had.
I do, I do remember. There's there's many moments that you know, we've been doing this since twenty fourteen, so there's just you know, thousands of kids and young adults and you know, even the elderly that we've we've been able to put some fresh pairs of sneakers on. But you know, the first thing that comes to mind is I think maybe twenty sixteen. We were at a shelter downtown of LA and this we were doing something for the holidays, and this family came in late and we
were already packed up. We packed up everything that we'd collected for the Christmas event, toys, books, clothes, shoes, everything, and I just remember the two teen boys being very grateful that we were there, even though they didn't get anything.
So long story short with that, my friend ended up giving the shoes off his feet pair of Jordan Eleven's concords, probably one of the you know, most favorite shoes that people in the sneaker game love, right, So they he got those shoes and we collected the sizes for the rest of the family and came back another day. But he was I think seventeen. Yeah, he was about seventeen years old when my friend gave him the shoes off
his feet. And when he was twenty one years old, five years later, he DMed me and was like, hey, man, I this is Elijah. Do you remember me? This is I was like, of course, So now he's all grown up and he's like, I want to come back out and volunteer.
You know that.
That week came out and gave shoes with us. So that's one moment that was kind of full circle for me.
That's pain and forward. You know that, that's incredible one of those moments.
Thank you.
How can people help your mission if they want to volunteer and join your you know, your your program, how can they do that?
Yeah, I mean it's it's a difficult question to answer right now because we're in the middle of just all this chaos that la with the wildfire, and you know, some of our needs have shifted. So we're currently fundraising for sneaker gift cards for kids because we're limited on sneakers sizes for children, So you know, we're purchasing gift cards from different shoe stores fifty dollars apiece so that when we give shoes to the parents, we can also hand them a gift card and it doesn't feel like
the kids are left out. So we're also running low on women's inventory. So if our women's sneaker heads out there want to give up some shoes, like, we'd be happy. Mostly looking for sizes eight, nine, ten, and then also like six and seven would help a lot. So yeah, I mean, we're just trying to make sure that we are lacing up the families that have lost everything right now.
Yeah, that's that's incredible. And people, how can they find you? The website is have asoul dot com. Yeah, and on Instagram the same thing at have a Soul, I have a Soul? Correct, Yeah, h A V A S O L E.
There's no E in the half.
So but you'll find us.
We're we're out there. We've been doing this for over ten years.
That's amazing. Well, we appreciate you, Thank you so much for doing this.
Thank you for the invitation.
Of course. Joining me now is Richard au CEO of a very well known Los Angeles charity called Project Angel Food. Governor Knewsom and his family recently visited and volunteered their time at Project Angel Food to help get meals to the people who needed them.
Hello, Hi, Hi, how are you?
Thank you so much for doing this. We appreciate you.
Oh my god, I appreciate you.
We're going to do have I have questions here that I want to ask you, right so we can cover everything on the amazing what you're doing. So talk to me. I want to know how does a person react when you provide them a meal? That otherwise they wouldn't have.
You know, Project Angel Food has been around for thirty five years, and we feed people who are sick, hungry, and alone, and we provide them with medically tailored meals. So it's not just food, it's food that helps them get better. And so we are providing meals for people not just impacted by the fires, but impacted by illness and poverty. So there are layers of things going on. And so our founder Mary Anne Williamson says, when you're
delivering food to someone, you're delivering love. And so what happens when you knock at the door and you wait for that client to answer the door, it is a huge warm of gratitude coming at you.
That's what you feel.
That's incredible and what has been the biggest impact made on you personally through your work at the organization. You've been with organization for how many years now?
I've been here for nine years. And I will tell you if rosalind, if you ask yourself what's my legacy, I have asked myself that in my entire life, my legacy is Project Angel Food. My legacy is taking care of the most vulnerable among us. This is what my mark is going to be and so I feel every day that I come to work, I'm helping people. I feel it. It's tangible. We could prepare and deliver one
point five million meals a year. He's one done individually, each one powered by people, volunteers or staff, and delivered by volunteers and staff.
How many How many people do you have? How many are part of this big machine to be able to accomplish something so huge and incredible.
We have ninety eight people on staff and thousands of volunteers right now, I just walked from our kitchen. Here, young and the restless is volunteering, every hunk, every beautiful star, They're all there, and I gotta go. I got to talk to Roslin Sanchez play with I love it, and I.
Way to volunteer. So let me ask you. If they help prepare the meals or they deliver the meals, if I want to help Tomorrow, I call you, I said, you know, Richard, I want to go on volunteer. What exactly do I do?
Either volunteer in the kitchen, so you help prepare meals, you chop vegetables. The governor and the first family they chopped vegetables and they also packed meals for us. So we have these lean cuisine type trays. It's an assembly line.
One person does the potatoes, another person does the protein, someone else does the veggies, and so it goes through a conveyor belt kind of like I love Lucy Chocolate episode, and then it gets heat sealed, and then someone else puts a label on it that tells you what the ingredients are. So that's one thing, and then you can also volunteer to deliver and see the clients who get the meals, and you know what that's really both are beautiful. But I just delivered to one of the clients yesterday
who lost his home in Altadena. All he said is standing is the chimney. And his name is Richard, just like me, and he's Armenian. His whole family came from Armenia. And he said, you know, thank you so much for the meals, Thank you so much. We gave grocery kits to him, so non perishable items so that if he
has another emergency he can take it. And we gave him hygiene items, you know, shampoo, conditioner all gone, and so we also gave him a thousand dollars gift card from Walmart, and he said, the first thing I'm going to buy is an electric razor.
Wow, isn't that unbelievable? Oh my god, it's incredible what you guys do. Okay, how has Project Intel Food had to change their normal operation in order to attack the need in the Los Angeles area.
So the thing about the Project Angel Food is we're here before and during and after a crisis. So when the food trucks are gone, the evacuation centers are closed down, we're still here and we're still taking care of people. So what we have found is there's a lot of people who have respiratory problems or mobility issues and need food. In fact, I just got an email before I got here, and I'll read it to you because it kind of
exemplifies what happens here. My name is Anna, and my husband and I lost our home due to the eating fire. I heard of Project Angel Food through a friend. We're currently living at the Romata Hotel in Pasadena. My husband has mobility problems. We have two dogs. It's difficult for me to get around. Can I qualify? The answer is yes, We're getting animals today.
Oh my god, Richard, I'm going to cry. That's amazing.
So what your point is, we're pivoting anyone with a mobility issue, anyone with respiratory problems in the impacted area. We're fast tracking you where you call us work in the dispense with the usual forms and going to get your service. So we were processing about one hundred people as we speak to join our service, beyond the twenty seven hundred we serve every day.
Unbelievable, incredible, God bless you guys. This is an incredible thing that you guys do, feeding people, helping people mentally, physically, emotionally, making them smile again. It's truly incredible. Talk about legacy, man, I'm going to go to bed tonight thinking, Ross, what's your legacy?
Really talked?
That really talked to me. So thank you so much for that, because it's important. It's important to go through life with a purpose and intention and moments like this when communities have to get together to help. You know how incredible you sleep at night when you close your eyes and you say, you know, I just changed someone's life today. It's a beautiful thing.
It is a beautiful thing. And I have someone who works here who packs our meals for us. Her name is Laura, and Laura said, what I know is the meal I'm packing here is going to end up in a smile at someone's own and so I love that she sees that vision. She's never met the client, but she knows she's on them. People come here for the mission, and there are people who come here for a job, but they stay here for the mission.
Wow Wow, beautifully said, thank you, Richard, thank you so much.
Thank you for shining the spotlight on us. Of course for making us one of those helpers that you're showcasing.
Of course well deserved.
Godless and Roslyn, I want you to come to the kitchen asat I will.
I don't cook that well, but I'm going to do it with so much love and so much passion that it will be amazing. I promise.
Thank you, Thank you.
I Heeart, Bye bye Baby. List of Beverly Hills is operating families in NITA space to pick up not only strollers and cribs and essential gadgets for your children, but also realizing there is a string of months and providing them with personal healthcare products as well. Brand and media VP Molly Goudson is here to tell us how they have been connecting with the community. Hi, welcome, thanks and
thank you so much for doing this. Yeah, talk to me about Baby List and what you guys are doing to help the community.
Yeah.
So we opened our showroom in Beverly Hill in twenty twenty three, so we've really felt like a part of the LA community since then. And when these fires started a couple of weeks ago, we knew we wanted to do something, and we just saw this opportunity to take this giant space that we have in Beverly Hills and transform it into a donation center so that families that we know are impacted that have lost everything can come and get some of those essentials.
That they lost.
So we worked with over one hundred brand partners to donate items. We had two days of donations, one on the twenty first one on the twenty eighth, in which families could come and pick up things that they need like strollers and high chairs and car seats, as well as you know, things like breast pumps and baby clothes and breastfeeding pillows and all of this stuff that you know, it is not just a nice to have, it really is a must have, especially when.
You're expecting or have a new baby. How does it work? People? Do you need an appointment? Do you just you need an appointment to be able to know we.
Have RSVPs, But but people can also, you know, come in if they have an RSVP'd. We understand that there's a lot going on these days on social media and messages everywhere, so we just want to support folks who need it who could come in, but most people have r s VP and just let us know which day they're coming. Just helps us know be ready for the
flow of folks. And then when you come, you know, we'll chat with you and hear a little bit about what your need are, what age of the baby is a or babies, and we'll sort of direct you through the experience so that you know, we make it easy.
We don't want to be overwhelming.
We know this whole thing is incredibly overwhelming, and our goal is really just to make it as easy as possible, and like work with brands that people already know and love so they can actually replace some of the things that they, you know, have had in their life in the past.
How is it dealing with the distributors, You know, you're making those uncomfortable with wonderful phone calls, you know, to this company saying.
People need this.
Know, you know, these items a lot of them. They're not cheap, you know, but they're much needed. But how do you navigate that phone call with a distribute distributor and say, listen, it's your time to step up.
Yeah.
Well, luckily baby List has amazing partner relationships with all of these brands. I mean, as a universal registry, we work with every baby brand under the sun, so we have existing relationships and so really it was just about calling them up and saying, hey, is this something you want to participate in? And you know that's everyone from Bugaboo and Cybex and Stoka and Bobby and Buyhart. Just like every the brands came out and they really wanted to show up. And it's been just incredible to see.
I mean, it was way more than we ever thought. I mean, right now our showroom is just like floor to ceiling packed with these items and we just love being able to get them back into people's lives.
That's fantastic and people want to help you and help you guys like what are the steps? You know, we have all these listeners that they're listening to this whole special because they want to be able to help, you know, not only from Los Angeles, from everywhere, Like, what is a good way to support what you guys are.
Doing well, First and foremost, if you have a family in your life that has been affected, make sure they know about it. I think you know, it's been really important for us to make sure that folks hear about it and know what we're doing, so that everyone who needs it can get something that they need from us.
And then we've had an amazing outpouring of volunteers which has been incredible, and so we've had everything from influencing celebrities just to brand partners and of course our own team working to do this.
And then after after we're.
Done with these two big donation days, you know, we know we will have some access product and that we're going to work and get distributed to other organizations that are on the ground and passing it altered it in the Palisades to make sure that everything gets in the hands of folks who've been affected.
That's incredible. Well, we appreciate it immensely. Thank you so much, Baby, Listen, you and everybody that is helping this is incredible. Thank you so much. The company Free People has opened up free Shop in Santa Monica, California, where people can come and get everything from close to utter products to food to replace our lost items. This company has stepped up in a huge way and I am so excited to
find out more. Corney Wise, Managing director of Brand Marketing for FP Movement, Hi, how are you?
Thank you for having me now, thank.
You for being here. We have appreciate it, So talk to me for people. It's what are you guys doing to help with the victims of the alifiers. You know, I've been following on Instagram and it's pretty remarkable what you guys are doing. But I want you to talk to our listeners.
Thank you so much.
So first off, our office is where I am in
currently are on Olympic and EUCLID. So immediately on Tuesday, it was at the office actually when the Palsy It's fire broke out, so I could see the smoke kind of you know, this is crazy, what's going on, And then of course the devastation throughout the day, and then that same day the Eaton fire broke out and Altadena and Pasadena, so just kind of so apparent we're in the headquarters here in Los Angeles, and then our headquarters are also our main headquarters are in Philadelphia.
So talking to the executive.
Team there, originally my team on the ground, we started putting together a list of people affected in our personal circle. And as the list grew, you know, up to eighty between makeup artists, photographers, fitness instructors, influencers. Were like, wow, this is crazy, just eighty that my team just has
personal relationships with. I shared that with the executive team in Philadelphia and they said, you know what, Because of course we were a little rattled on the ground, They're like, you know what, We're going to step in support you guys on the ground. That's actually send units from our distribution center.
We have up to ten.
Thousand units of clothing, ten thousand units of beauty and wellness supplies.
Let's send those.
So this was maybe kind of the Friday, I think January ninth or so, let's send those units next week and see what we can do. So over Martin Luther King weekend, we decided to put on the free shop. So our name is free People. So we're like, okay, let's actually be so clear about what this is this is a free shop. We also wanted a shopping experience, so of course these are people that lost their homes, lost all their possessions. We didn't want it to seem
just like a clothing drive. We really wanted it to be true to free people and FP movement, the shopping experience, that these are our customers, so many of them has had it in the store. So we turned our offices our photo studio into just that, so into a store about thirty racks, organized by style, organized by size, and on the first day, the Saturday of the holiday weekend, we were out of product, ten thousand clothing units, ten thousand beauty and wellness units in the first four hours,
and we just thought this is crazy. In fairness, we strategically decided to just have ID but not to have appointment slots just because we didn't. We're learning just like everyone else, right, It was knew it was so so raw toed people. We activated immediately the first week that this was happening, So in that point in time, just
doing the best we could. I was like, oh, it might feel like a lot for people to go on their phones, fill out a slot, put in their address, and all of that so week in one that we did this, we thought, no, let's just have them come and see and the response was just so overwhelming. There were clearly so many people in need. We said, okay,
let's do this weekend two. But to have this best service was just this past weekend, but to have this best serve the community, we actually had an intake form and we decided to have thirty people per half hour, so more individual kind of shopping appointments. We did then bring in stylists from our store teams that we're able to really help people put together their outfit?
What are the foundations? Where do you start?
And the response was just so overwhelming because we had people this past weekend, but like they're getting back into life.
I have a birthday.
So if you think about it, kind of compartmentalizing, that's what we do as humans to help us get over at trauma. So it's this awful thing's happening in my life. I'm dealing with insurance, where to live, where to send my children to school, but I also want to experience joy. I don't want to turn down that invitation. Now, going on week three of a friend's birthday, I want to
go to that dinner. So what's something that's not just my sweats or the one thing that I ran out of the house, And what can I pull together as an actual outfit?
So we ended up having nine hundred appointments.
That's incredible. I'm going to tell you something. This is interesting. So we had another special with Governor Knewsom and there was a woman who came on to talk about her concerns you know, that she had, and that interview she mentioned how the Free Shop helped her feel more confident by giving her the outfit she used on zoom to
talk to the governor that day. Wow, and I believe that's how iHeart and our producers they here besides Instagram, you know, and the big movement that you guys are doing. They clocked her when she said it, you know, because they did that special with the governor and she mentioned you guys and that's when they went, oh, that's interesting, free people, free shop, what are they doing? And here
we are. So it was pretty powerful, you know, for that woman talking to somebody in a position of what a political figure to it was.
This is how.
Important there was for her at that moment in time that she felt compelled to tell this human being. I feel confident because I had this company do this for me.
I'm so happy that.
The ultimate and that's really confidence what we what we serve as a as a clothing and active wear brand, that's really what we to deliver. So that's the ultimate and that's the ultimate empowerment that I feel about in my position in my job. I'm like, Wow, we really actually are achieving the mission that you too very.
Much, very very much, and how can people help you?
Know?
How can people help you guys? Amplify?
Is there?
So you're going to do another one of these? Like what's coming for you guys?
Yeah?
So I think after two weekends in a row, you know, we feel like we've made the current impact when people are still in temporary housing, still figuring that out in the future when the communities are when people are back in their homes and kind of rebuild and people can acquire more belongings. It's something that we would definitely love to do again. So definitely to be determined date that could be in a year from.
Now, whenever that might be.
For the media, I think just everyone behind be kind to strangers, themselves, neighbors, and to our first responders and firefighters. We also donated to the California Fire Foundation, so if anyone's looking to make a monetary donation, there's so many wonderful organizations. I think any of our local firehouses, LA Fire Foundation. I know Baby to Baby does a lot in helping young mothers, young families. We support Girls Inc As an ongoing foundation with FP Movements, I think.
Any of those organizations.
And then as soon as we have another Jove, everyone can look out on our Instagram and just to share that with family, with friends, all of that so will definitely keep you everyone breast of the future. We do have some units left. I believe your team is going to help me connect with the Palisads High School. Perfect Yes, so we love that, and then we're going to connect to it with Altadina Girls too, because everybody loves free people, everyone from teenagers two grandmothers.
I am such a huge friend. You have no idea. I love the brand and it makes me so happy to know that I actually show up at a place that makes a difference. And do you guys take the time to actually give back to the community. So I'm going to keep I'm going to show you even more because I know you guys are doing things for the purpose and that means a lot.
Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
And every day at FP Movement, one percent of your purchases every day go to Girls Inc. So that's a national foundation. And at Free People we also have a partnership with the National Park Service, So if you don't take a bag in the store, we have recycle bags. But if you don't take a bag, ten cents does go to the National Park Foundations, so.
To give them, Phomena, Well, thank you so much.
Thank you so much for having me.
Of course, So there you have, guys. I hope that this was much help. You know, those of you that know me, they we have talked about this on our podcast, he said.
Ayadiho.
With my husband Eric Winter, we have a final thought every single night before we go to bed, and we talk to each other about things that are important. My final thought after listening to all these organizations and all these wonderful people helping building community and just doing incredible work, I'm inspired. I'm inspired. There's so much that we can do from your house, you know, just go to our website, donate, just go to one of these organizations and prepare some meals.
Just there's so much that you can do. You don't have to be in a late to be able to do it. And if you physically hear, there's nothing more beautiful than helping somebody, especially in a time of need. And I'm going to be doing that. I'm gonna encourage and teach my kids of the importance of doing this. What happened to Los Angeles, to our beautiful community has been devastating and this is gonna it's gonna take years to rebuild, So any any help is so welcome and
so needed. So yeah, thank you for listening. We appreciate you. God blessing me.