Hello, I’m writing this on behalf of a close friend. A group of individuals out of Sacramento are looking to set up a relief package etc for fire victims. He had close friends loose everything. He would like his efforts to focus on the Greenville area. Besides the red cross. Does anyone have any location or information I can pass along.
Any help would be appreciated. Thank you in advance for your help.
Fellow firefighter.
I personally spoke to Red Cross members today at an Evac Center and they said truly the most efficient and best type of donation is cash $ to the Red Cross. The donors can earmark the money for a specific area or incident of their choice. They also stated, that while the intentions are appreciated, logistically it can be more difficult to deal with physical items. I know you were asking about places other than the Red Cross, but hopefully that helps.
I appreciate it. I kinda figured that.
Thank you.
I’m not in Gold Country and can’t speak for the local situation, but I second earmarked cash donations to the Red Cross with a second suggestion… The local Salvation Army corps may be equipped for physical donations, and it may be worth a call to them to find out. My local corps is active in disaster relief, so I suspect that Susanville (or wherever the nearest chapter is) may be as well
I’ve heard from some of the organizations around here that gift cards are a great way to help evacuees. I’d look up what stores are around the evacuation center you want to mail them to.
Here’s one of the evac center #'s up here:
Lassen Community College Emergency Shelter Line (530) 250-9004
There is a second one but it’s moving tomorrow, I"ll post it’s location once we know.
This is in Susanville, and we have a Walmart, Dollar Store, Safeway, Jack in the Box, Burger King, Taco Bell, Roundtable Pizza, Chevron gas…
Just my two cents but we did hear our fair share of horror stories about the Red Cross locally after the Tubbs, not sure if it was a local issue but keep in my mind less than 25% of their annual budget goes to “disaster relief”. Unfortunately there are limited options on how to help unless you personally know someone affected.
If you know specific individuals who you would like to support, set up a go fund me for them. Red Cross keeps a lot of the money donated to them. Not trying to knock them or the support that they provide but it sucks that when you want to support a specific family or community, not all the money you send for that goes to that… It’s best to go direct!!!
Copy & Pasted what I posted last year regarding physical donations…
If you are are thinking of donating material goods, don’t unless the items are specifically called for. Monetary donations are preferred by Red Cross and other private entities. Much of what gets donated ends up in the landfill because there is no mechanism for effective distribution. The news runs a story about a mother losing all her baby clothes and suddenly a bunch of 18 wheelers of infant clothes show up. Just don’t.
This ^^ a lot of posts are saying enough with the clothes especially! And of course ask first what is needed.
Thank you for reminding us all.
Also I edited my response earlier to include details on the Lassen Shelter and nearby businesses if you’d like to send gift cards. If the shelter for any reason can’t do it I can help, but I think they will be happy for that kind of help.
Quarters for laundromats were appreciated on the Camp Fire. They are part of my go kit now.
Yes on cash cards and direct financial support. Also, donated services like massage, mobile dental and health are great and worth supporting if you hear about people doing them. After the Camp Fire, there were so many used clothes dumped into Butte County the local thrift stores wouldn’t accept any clothes for 2 years. Same thing happened on the Valley Fire. Relief places like the Moose Lodge were literally buried in half an acre of people’s old clothes.
Here’s the link to Tiny Pine Foundation: https://www.tinypinefoundation.com/donate?fbclid=IwAR0WbHHHzmQS2ybBhDxd5xyHDBjvaS9865zYAijCvzJogxt3_qP1Pn9ilwE
They have been distributing gift cards, meals, and are raising money for hotel vouchers
The local Plumas News has articles on their website with some links to local organizations. One that looks good is "Indian Valley residents vet GoFundMe campaigns — not all legitimate — here’s where to go." They list a site set up by some of the local volunteer firefighters. There’s no paywall to get through to read any of their articles.
Red Cross does a lot of good work, but because they are so big they do end up spending a lot on overhead. Local organizations will likely operate with little or no overhead and will know what’s needed far better than anyone else. As far as donations of physical goods, I couldn’t agree more with what’s already been said. Unless it’s filling a very specific need and is coordinated with a specific recipient, it will just result in piles of stuff that doesn’t meet anybody’s needs. They don’t have the warehouse space to store it and the community doesn’t need the burden of disposing of it all.
We lost our home in the Camp Fire and I would reiterate what other have said. Cash or gift cards were extremely helpful. It can feel a bit like someone is being too particular to say that, but permanent living situations can take several months or more to get ironed out and in the interim any victims are likely not able to keep very many possessions. Adopt-a-family type situations where clothes in good condition from another child of the same size, or adult, go directly to a person in need can be very helpful, but donating to large organizations just gets too overwhelming for both the organizations and the victims. One thing not yet mentioned, is the firefighters’ union benevolent funds. To my knowledge, they only provide assistance to firefighters and firefighter family members affected by fire, but they were so generous after the Camp Fire and will be forever appreciated. I’m not sure how many firefighters may be affected by the Dixie, but I’m sure there are at least some, and the Butte benevolent fund cut checks to both individuals who lost homes and individuals who suffered prolonged evacuation and home remediation if their house survived. I’m sure each fund has its own operating procedures and I imagine it would also depend on the funds available to be distributed.
Plumas Rural Services is starting to distribute gift cards, you can donate online: https://plumasruralservices.org/