By Ruth SOWBY
On Sunday, Jan. 26, a new tool popped up to make more donations available to children directly affected by the Eaton Fire who attend school in the La Cañada School District. Hundreds of items from clothes to toiletries to school supplies were available to District students and parents. Everything was free.
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Photos by Ruth SOWBY
The Osbrink Agency, which represents show biz talent, partnered with Rainy Day Pennies, Inc. to accumulate items, find volunteers to man the store and give away donations. Rainy Day Pennies’ owners, husband and wife Shane and Farrell Foley, offered their La Cañada Flintridge home for the pop-up. They also let their large network of friends and business associates know they needed donations and the help of volunteers to give the hundreds of items away. Their friends stepped up with donations and manpower for the pop-up. Osbrink clients were also part of the act as donors and volunteers.
Osbrink V.P. Maureen Rose said, “We honestly have been searching for ways to help anyone affected and our sharing outlets with our client roster in case they want to join in.”
Altogether about 20 volunteers, including Osbrink’s actors and actresses, took five days to set up the pop-up.
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Tamara Fragas Williams of Altadena lost her home in the Eaton Fire as well as five homes belonging to family members. High school friends of the 51-year-old Williams told her about the pop-up and she came running. She needed to replace all of her clothes, having lost every possession she had. The only thing she carried as she quickly evacuated when she saw flames nearby was her important paperwork. There was no time to pack anything else. Friends helped her out of her house.
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As the hours went by, volunteers at the La Cañada Flintridge pop-up store opened up their donations to all, not just students at the La Cañada Unified School District.
The next morning, “finagling” her way back she saw that her home was destroyed.
“Only the chimney was left; everything was still smoking and smoldering,” Williams said. Houses around hers were still on fire. “My entire life, everything I had for 50 years, was gone. I had packed no bags.” She did her best to sift through the debris and ashes, but “found nothing.”
“My chest and throat hurts. I’ve already crashed, now I’m processing,” she said. “I’ve got to go embrace it.” Asked where she lives now, Williams said, “I’m a gypsy. I go from house to house.”
Donations left over from the pop-up store sale are being given to other distribution centers.
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