Rogue Valley Relief Fund helps hundreds start over after Almeda fire in southern Oregon: Season of Sharing 20 – oregonlive.com

On Sept. 8, Phoenix resident Gladis Garcia was helping out with her husbands landscaping business when she got word that a small brush fire near Ashland was quickly growing into what would be known as the Almeda fire.

We got a call from my daughter that there was a fire in Talent, and that it was getting close because the wind was picking up, she said. We never really thought it would reach our home. We thought they would get it under control.

Garcia and her husband headed home, but they didnt get far as the fire swept north, through Talent and reaching the outskirts of Phoenix. Roads were jammed with people escaping the fire.

My husband and I were stuck in traffic, and there was no way to get back home, she said.

So they called their three children, ages 9, 14 and 19, telling them to grab a few important documents and some clothes and to get out. As the family drove to safety, they could see neighbors' homes catching fire behind them.

We could see the fire, and we knew our kids were going through a lot, Garcia said. Its a very stressful situation for a parent to not be able to be there for them and tell them that everything is going to be OK.

When the Garcias returned the next day, their manufactured home was completely destroyed, along with their daughters car.

Now the Garcia family is starting over with help from the Rogue Valley Relief Fund, a beneficiary of The Oregonian/OregonLives 2020 Season of Sharing holiday fundraising campaign.

>>To donate: Season of Sharing GoFundMe page

The fund, which was founded in the wake of Septembers wildfires, is a collaboration between five Southern Oregon grass-roots non-profits that normally focus on issues of climate change, affordable housing and racial equality. The fund is designed to get food and assistance to people affected by the Almeda fire. Rogue Action Center, Rogue Climate, SOHealth-E, SOEquity and Siskiyou Rising Tide have set up five distribution sites throughout the area, where people can pick up supplies such as baby food, diapers, blankets and tents.

The distribution centers have also served hundreds of breakfasts, lunch and dinners at the distribution sites every day. The centers are run by volunteers drawn from each non-profits regular pool of volunteers.

Gladis Garcia (second from right) and her children (from left), Caleb, 9, Ana Alvarez, 19, and Isaac, 14, carry items recovered from the remains of their home as they walk through their neighborhood in Phoenix, Ore., on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020. Gladis is holding the family molcajete, a Mexican kitchen utensil used to grind food. Ana is holding the license plate from her car, which was destroyed in the fire. Isaac is holding the remains of his electronic gaming console.Robin Loznak/For The Oregonian/OregonLive

People have been very comfortable and very appreciative to have some of these supplies so they can save their funds for things like their first months rent, hotel rooms, said Alessandra de la Torre, energy justice organizer for Rogue Climate. People are really appreciating how people are coming together to support each other in this time of crisis.

The fund, which is being implemented with help from Oregons MRG Foundation, has been able to give out $100 Visa cards, which people can use for anything they need, like clothes and groceries.

Se-ah-dom Edmo, executive director of the MRG Foundation, said that as of mid-October, more than $500,000 in aid had been distributed to the relief fund. Almost all of that aid has come from individual donations.

De la Torre said that some of those donations came from Rogue Valley musicians and artists who have been hosting their own fundraisers, like concerts and gallery shows.

While working on the relief fund is inspiring, De la Torre said, it also has been challenging because the offices for both Rogue Climate and Rogue Action Center were destroyed in the wildfire.

It will not stop our commitment to the community, because we are so much more than an office, she said. We will keep working to give the community united and sustainable change.

For now, the Garcia family is staying rent-free in a small Ashland apartment owned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. But theyll have to move out in January, when the festival needs the apartment to house visiting artists.

After that, where is a family of five with a dog going to go? Garcia said. Its hard to find a place because apartments are asking for more money than we have right now. Weve been getting a lot of help from smaller nonprofits, but theres only so much funding and support that they can give.

Garcia wants people to understand that her familys experience is anything but unique.

I really hope that the people who donate understand that our story is just one story, she said. We lost more than a house. We lost a community that night, and there were people who lost a lot more than us. I want people to put themselves in our shoes, and to one day have a home, and the next day to have lost everything literally in the blink of an eye.

What your donation can do

$25: Buy groceries for people displaced by fire.

$50: Buy a tank of gas for a family displaced by fire.

$100: Buy a Visa gift card for personal articles, as well as a night at a hotel.

-- Grant Butler

gbutler@oregonian.com

503-221-8566; @grantbutler

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Rogue Valley Relief Fund helps hundreds start over after Almeda fire in southern Oregon: Season of Sharing 20 - oregonlive.com