Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to an iHeart special event look
Speaker 1: for the Helpers by Rossident Scentives. And I feel so
Speaker 1: blessed to be with you all today because as a
Speaker 1: resident Overlay, I just want to help with my family.
Speaker 1: I want to help my friends and my community. At
Speaker 1: this time. I don't know about the rest of you
Speaker 1: here in the City of Angels, but as I drive around,
Speaker 1: I do not only see the destruction or hear the
Speaker 1: stories of children who have lost their schools, parents who
Speaker 1: have lost their homes and jobs, but I hear and
Speaker 1: see the hope that comes in between. From the neighborhood
Speaker 1: is bringing food to their local place of worship, to
Speaker 1: a laundromat owner opening their doors for people who clean
Speaker 1: the few coals they have. It is driving to the
Speaker 1: grocery store and seeing the car at the red light
Speaker 1: next to me filled with donations on its way to
Speaker 1: get people who have lost everything what they need. We
Speaker 1: have talked a lot about the tragedy, but today I
Speaker 1: want to share with you the people who are helping,
Speaker 1: the organizations that are offering resource to Welifire victims, and
Speaker 1: where to find them. If you're home and you're wondering
Speaker 1: how you can help from not only Los Angeles, but
Speaker 1: anywhere you are hearing this. We're going to help you
Speaker 1: the answers. Today, we tell you where to look for
Speaker 1: the helpers. My first guest today is First Partner of California,
Speaker 1: Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Hi, Hi, thank you for doing this.
Speaker 1: I wanted to because I know you've been touring all
Speaker 1: these different areas and you've been pretty busy, you know,
Speaker 1: like dealing with meals and just helping people. I want
Speaker 1: to hear about stories you know that you're hearing from
Speaker 1: people firsthand that you go like, oh my god, that's
Speaker 1: really powerful. It touched my heart. Do you remember one
Speaker 1: specifically that just blew you away?
Speaker 2: Well, yes, so many stories. A girlfriend of mine actually
Speaker 2: lost everything in the Altadena fire, and instead of just
Speaker 2: morning and licking her wounds and only focusing on herself,
Speaker 2: she launched a whole new website to an initiative linking
Speaker 2: people to childcare because we know that, I mean, you
Speaker 2: can't even attend to all of the administrative work required
Speaker 2: of dealing with you know, FEMA and SBA, loans and
Speaker 2: insurance and driver's life and all the things that you
Speaker 2: know were potentially missing or needing to be addressed with,
Speaker 2: to get back on your feet and start the process
Speaker 2: the planning process of you know, obviously getting your home
Speaker 2: cleaned up and then the site cleaned up, and then
Speaker 2: beginning to the process of planning and then rebuilding. And
Speaker 2: yet she was focused on making sure that these women
Speaker 2: predominantly had childcare, that their children could play, that their
Speaker 2: children could be distracted from the pain and suffering and
Speaker 2: actually be in community with other kids and being nurtured.
Speaker 2: And I have some semblance of normalcy.
Speaker 1: That's incredible as a mom. You know your mom, I'm
Speaker 1: a mom. This happened so fast and it was just
Speaker 1: so unexpected and out of control. How do you talk
Speaker 1: to your kids and you explain to them. Listen, we
Speaker 1: live in California. We are used to natural disasters, you know,
Speaker 1: it is what it is. I come from Puerto Rico.
Speaker 1: We deal with hurricanes every single year, and every single
Speaker 1: come August September. Everybody's like, oh my god, what if
Speaker 1: it's about a year for us, you know, because you
Speaker 1: never know, but at least it's interesting with hurricanes, you
Speaker 1: kind of like I have. The weather experts will tell
Speaker 1: you it's coming, it's coming. In this specific case, it
Speaker 1: was just like it's here, Oh my god, it just
Speaker 1: became completely out of control. How do you talk to
Speaker 1: your kids about the tragedy and ways to help and
Speaker 1: just help them the mental health, you know, so they
Speaker 1: don't even fear that one mom, what did this happens again?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean, look, I think as a society, we've all
Speaker 2: experienced around the world, not just in California, not just
Speaker 2: in this country, trauma to varying degrees, and I think
Speaker 2: it's critical that parents are self aware of their own
Speaker 2: anxiety and their own nervous systems so that they can
Speaker 2: really anchor and hold children who are so vulnerable. My children,
Speaker 2: you know, we have four young kids, and I ended
Speaker 2: up bringing them down to Los Angeles on MLK Day
Speaker 2: to volunteer because I needed them to be helpers. I
Speaker 2: needed them to be of service and to do their
Speaker 2: part in helping to anchor the Angelino community. And so
Speaker 2: that is really you know, one way that that I
Speaker 2: communicate with my kids is through action and through service
Speaker 2: and through modeling that behavior simultaneously. I recommend that all
Speaker 2: families talk to their kids about their feelings and their
Speaker 2: emotions and understand that they're really complex, Like one of
Speaker 2: my kids is very very loud and aggressive when he's anxious,
Speaker 2: and another one will not speak but does sort of
Speaker 2: impish things and can't put language to what she's feeling.
Speaker 2: And so every kid is different, right, and so which
Speaker 2: is why I love the resources that we actually are
Speaker 2: providing to all Californians, but in particular that are available
Speaker 2: to Angelina's right now, we have different apps that are
Speaker 2: all free, evidence based resources, best practices and access to
Speaker 2: actual therapists for children zero to twelve which is bright Life,
Speaker 2: and teens thirteen and up to Saluna. These are two
Speaker 2: apps again available online. With all these free resources to
Speaker 2: address mental health. In this time period, we've also partnered
Speaker 2: with Childmind Institute. We have a whole initiative in English
Speaker 2: and Spanish, Healthy Kids Thriving Minds, which has been extremely
Speaker 2: powerful in normalizing sadness, hopelessness, anxiety, depression, all the fear
Speaker 2: that we're experiencing whether we live in Los Angeles or not,
Speaker 2: because again, as you mentioned, we've had wildfires across our
Speaker 2: state really since just you know, really when I kind.
Speaker 1: Of woke up to.
Speaker 2: The modern climate change era was with the Paradise fire
Speaker 2: that happened right before the governor came into office in
Speaker 2: twenty eighteen, so.
Speaker 3: There are free resources.
Speaker 2: There's also a positive parenting guide through Childmind that has
Speaker 2: a video series on coping with family and community stress,
Speaker 2: which again this is not just individual stress, this is
Speaker 2: like community stress when you're very much community in Altadena
Speaker 2: or Palisades. So again I just I think then we've
Speaker 2: also just lastly, one of the things I try to
Speaker 2: do is introduce I've introduced my kids to breath work
Speaker 2: and to to you know, to basically give them their
Speaker 2: their own tools to settle their nervous systems when they're
Speaker 2: feeling pretty anxious. And the Governor's Advisory Council and Physical
Speaker 2: Fitness and Mental well Being has come out with a
Speaker 2: whole best practice series on breathwork, mindfulness, and daily movement.
Speaker 2: So I'm always encouraging people when they can to spend
Speaker 2: time and nature to anger themselves with you know, different
Speaker 2: forms of mindfulness and breath work, and we actually give
Speaker 2: people the tools for that.
Speaker 3: And so we're we've.
Speaker 2: Been down in Los Angeles providing support and we'll try
Speaker 2: to do more because there are so many resources out
Speaker 2: there to help hold people while they're recovering from this
Speaker 2: horrific trauma. Yeah, it's church losing their jobs, losing their businesses,
Speaker 2: losing their communities.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been pretty brutal. I want you to talk
Speaker 1: to us about California Love California is Strong.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 2: So California Love, California Strong is a campaign that we've
Speaker 2: just sawt launch around the fires to remind people that
Speaker 2: we're in this together, to uplift what's already been happening,
Speaker 2: which is this incredible love that Angelina's have for Angelina's,
Speaker 2: but that all of California has for California and frankly
Speaker 2: the world. I mean again, we saw the president of
Speaker 2: Mexico send her firefighters and her guard and we've seen
Speaker 2: the Canadians send their folks in the other states, Oregon,
Speaker 2: you name it, have sent folks into help us recover
Speaker 2: and fight off this natural disaster. And so California Love
Speaker 2: California Strong is really about this whole concept that there
Speaker 2: is this love that we have for each other and
Speaker 2: it's being exhibited and that together that this is really
Speaker 2: you know, this really is our strength, right. Our love
Speaker 2: and our care for our communities and for each other
Speaker 2: is really what makes us so strong as a state,
Speaker 2: and it's how we're going to get through this, and
Speaker 2: it's how we're going to get to the other side,
Speaker 2: you know, like say Phoenix rises from the ashes. In California,
Speaker 2: it is, and we'll do this and we'll do it better,
Speaker 2: and we'll obviously learn a lot from what happened and
Speaker 2: make changes so that we are safer and so that
Speaker 2: we can rebuild together.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much, Jennifer for everything you guys
Speaker 1: are doing. We truly appreciate it. What an unfortunate situation,
Speaker 1: you know what, I know it's been. It's so sad.
Speaker 1: It's so sad. What great things come out of not
Speaker 1: great things, you know, And everybody's learning and we're going
Speaker 1: to rebuild as a community and as a city and
Speaker 1: come out stronger, I have no doubt.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, no, and I'm just so proud
Speaker 2: of that California spirit. It's really the California way, and
Speaker 2: it's what I think it's one of the reasons California
Speaker 2: really is the first in the nation and leads in
Speaker 2: the nation in so many areas because we are living
Speaker 2: together and thriving together despite all of our differences, and
Speaker 2: despite this suffering and you know, I just it gives
Speaker 2: me hope. I have so much hope because of the spirit.
Speaker 2: And of course people are allowed to be angry, and
Speaker 2: of course people are allowed to be strong sad, but
Speaker 2: the fact of the matter is, like.
Speaker 4: There are people.
Speaker 2: This is a resilient community that has incredible energy and fortitude,
Speaker 2: and that gives me hope and it makes me believe
Speaker 2: in California more than I ever have.
Speaker 1: Yes, I agree with you, and listen, this is special
Speaker 1: that we're doing. I've been able to interview so many
Speaker 1: people doing incredible things, you know, and it takes moments
Speaker 1: like this for people to unite and just come up
Speaker 1: with incredible ideas to solve problems and to help, you know,
Speaker 1: and get inspired. You know, there's a lot of inspiration
Speaker 1: of people that never in a million years thought that
Speaker 1: they were going to respond to something and start helping
Speaker 1: and then get the immense desire to continue to help,
Speaker 1: because you know, it's like once you get a fever
Speaker 1: of like it feels good and I'm doing something good,
Speaker 1: you know you want to continue doing it. So it's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's great.
Speaker 2: Thank you, And hopefully California Love California Strong campaign will
Speaker 2: launch officially whereby all Californians once a month at least
Speaker 2: on the first Sunday the month will give time, resources, love,
Speaker 2: and gratitude in their communities and elsewhere. And that's really
Speaker 2: the spirit of what we're trying to launch. But it's
Speaker 2: there already, it's in Los Angeles, and again that this
Speaker 2: is what gives me hope and makes me believe that
Speaker 2: we can have a future where more people are other oriented,
Speaker 2: more people are community oriented, and more committed. More Canelo
Speaker 2: Fignes are committed to being helpers.
Speaker 1: Awesome and mentally that well. Thank you so much, Nandie
Speaker 1: for have a great day.
Speaker 5: You too, Thanks for everything.
Speaker 1: Okay, that's us. Betty Chokachi is known for his Rolem Daywatch,
Speaker 1: but has really had his books on the ground helping
Speaker 1: out in the policy's community and beyond. As someone who
Speaker 1: lost his home in the twenty eighteen Wolves fire, he
Speaker 1: knows exactly how it feels to lose everything and have
Speaker 1: to start over.
Speaker 6: How are you doing?
Speaker 1: Hi, Thank you so much David for doing this. Truly
Speaker 1: appreciate it.
Speaker 6: Hi, You're so welcome. I'm so excited.
Speaker 7: You guys are doing something, you know, to highlight you
Speaker 7: know what people have been doing around the city to
Speaker 7: help people and help the animals.
Speaker 6: Yes.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And my understanding is that you lost this happened
Speaker 1: to you in twenty eighteen, and the Wesley fire is correct.
Speaker 6: In the Wool fire.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we have our rental property out here on point
Speaker 7: two is a beautiful house that this.
Speaker 6: He was a script supervisor I met on bay Watch.
Speaker 6: He was in his seventies at the time.
Speaker 7: But it was like an acre and a half all
Speaker 7: fruit trees and berries like, and we were living in
Speaker 7: this beautiful it was like a treehouse.
Speaker 6: Kind of thing, and I've renovated the whole bottom and
Speaker 6: we just made it ours.
Speaker 7: And my daughter was three at the time, so we
Speaker 7: when that fire happened, it was the same time.
Speaker 6: It was so fast. By the time I tried to
Speaker 6: get out here to get.
Speaker 7: Anything out of it, they were already at that mindatary
Speaker 7: evacuation and so we lost everything, and you know, it's
Speaker 7: just it's it's I felt obviously much worse for my
Speaker 7: friend Tom Moore who lost the place because that was
Speaker 7: the sanctuary.
Speaker 6: That's where he found the East of the World.
Speaker 7: But it's it's tough, and you know, at that time,
Speaker 7: what happened was all the firefighters were spread so thin,
Speaker 7: and again there's a fire station fifty yards from that
Speaker 7: house where that house was, and they were gone obviously,
Speaker 7: and there was no water.
Speaker 6: So since then, I was gonna talk about it later,
Speaker 6: but I'll just bring him now. There's a a guy
Speaker 6: here named.
Speaker 7: Andrew Oh my god, no, keaking Gibbs, who started this
Speaker 7: volunteer fire brigade because people have noticed, especially in this
Speaker 7: remote area of Malibu, and it's not that remote, but
Speaker 7: it's a little bit cut off that if you you're
Speaker 7: not resourceful and you're not aware and like capable of
Speaker 7: taking care of yourself, your friends, your family, or your neighbors,
Speaker 7: there's a good chance you will you know you're you're
Speaker 7: in serious danger with something like that. This happens because
Speaker 7: it happens so fast. Yeah, I mean, we saw like
Speaker 7: how fast that Palace States fire moved. And so they
Speaker 7: started a volunteer fire brigade. That's a legitimate fire brigade.
Speaker 7: It's like sixty hours of training. And I actually applied
Speaker 7: in November and I'm just waiting to hear back. But
Speaker 7: since the Franklin fire happened, and this happened like they've
Speaker 7: been so busy.
Speaker 6: I think they're yeah waiting, so I'm hoping to be
Speaker 6: to become a member of that.
Speaker 7: But in the meantime, yeah, I've been busy, like helping
Speaker 7: best Friends as much as possible.
Speaker 1: And I'm assuming you I'm not assuming. I know you're
Speaker 1: probably missus helping giving lots of words of encouragement because
Speaker 1: you went through it so you know how it feels.
Speaker 1: And as a dad, I am a huge animal advocate
Speaker 1: as myself, and I was so happy when I learned
Speaker 1: that you're helping animals, Yeah, in a very very very
Speaker 1: incredible way. And your daughter, how old is your daughter now?
Speaker 1: Thirteen thirteen? So talk to me about this experience that
Speaker 1: she's doing with you, and what is it that you're
Speaker 1: doing with these animals and find them places for them
Speaker 1: and help them try one location to the next.
Speaker 7: So what they've done Best Friends Animal Society and along
Speaker 7: there are some other great groups because I worked on
Speaker 7: a flight yesterday and this is another great group also
Speaker 7: that should be mentioned as a pause for likee K nine,
Speaker 7: they do a lot of amazing stuff. So, but best
Speaker 7: Friends has kind of they're really their main goal is
Speaker 7: to achieve like no kill shelters through the entire LA
Speaker 7: by the end of twenty twenty five, which is if
Speaker 7: you see the numbers, they've reduced it by something like
Speaker 7: sixteen millions so far, and they're really taken a hard
Speaker 7: like push at that. I've been an ambassador for them
Speaker 7: since the year two thousand. I helped because I was
Speaker 7: an actor and had some visibility. There's a big pet
Speaker 7: adoption at the labret Tarpits and these they said, hey,
Speaker 7: would you come walk these dogs down the runway and
Speaker 7: try and get them adopted because if they don't get
Speaker 7: adopted that day, they'll be euthanized the next set the
Speaker 7: next day.
Speaker 6: Yeah. Wow, I hate to say this, but I like
Speaker 6: dogs more than humans, so I agree.
Speaker 1: It's okay, no offense. Human makes me love you too,
Speaker 1: but animals they're very special.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 6: So that was my first introduction to them.
Speaker 7: And then we walked around that event and my wife
Speaker 7: and I saw this pit lab mixed and that was
Speaker 7: our first rescue and ever since then, I've kind of
Speaker 7: been an ambassador for them. So they were really smart,
Speaker 7: like they pre as soon as these fires started, they
Speaker 7: took action. They went into motion right away and started
Speaker 7: They knew they'd be a huge influx of animals coming
Speaker 7: from whether it's they're they're just like fleeing and they're
Speaker 7: like now they're separated from their families, or a lot
Speaker 7: of families have had to surrender their their dogs because
Speaker 7: of the displaced or a lot of families unfortunately can't
Speaker 7: even afford to deal with even like the process of surrendering.
Speaker 7: They're in a place of survival mode where they're just
Speaker 7: like letting their dogs go out in the wild.
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. Let me ask you, how can people help?
Speaker 1: You help them?
Speaker 7: The best way people can help is to go foster pet,
Speaker 7: like even for a couple of weeks, because when you
Speaker 7: foster a pet, you take it out of the caged environment.
Speaker 7: You get to take pictures and videos of it in
Speaker 7: a home environment. That's the real dog, you know, and
Speaker 7: then a potential family gets to see that dog like, Okay,
Speaker 7: that's what the dogs I get home instead of when
Speaker 7: they show up at the shelter and it's all afraid
Speaker 7: and timid and like what we're kind of setting So fostering, adopting,
Speaker 7: donating to the food pantry.
Speaker 6: Best Friends right now has a food pantry down in
Speaker 6: West la.
Speaker 7: You can look it up there where if you need
Speaker 7: pet food, cat food, any kind of supplies there for free,
Speaker 7: or if you want to make donations to that pantry,
Speaker 7: that's another way to help. They also started a foster
Speaker 7: program on Facebook best friends did.
Speaker 6: Those are like the main ways to help?
Speaker 1: Okay, perfect, Thank you so much. I truly real appreciate,
Speaker 1: appreciate everything you're doing. This is amazing. As a dog
Speaker 1: love myself, we need help, so please please it's a
Speaker 1: wonderful thing to foster a pet. It helps them, it
Speaker 1: helps the family. It's much needed. So thank you so much.
Speaker 6: Yeah, you're welcome. You're welcome.
Speaker 1: Now I'm going to welcome Randy Jafee, who, along with
Speaker 1: her sister in law Jenny, they launched the Ali Lost
Speaker 1: Stoppy Project, which aims to help replace beloved items like
Speaker 1: stop animals, toys, and blankets for kids who were displaced
Speaker 1: by devastating Los Angeles area fires. How are you nice
Speaker 1: meeting you?
Speaker 8: It's so nice to thank you so much for having
Speaker 8: me on.
Speaker 1: Of course, thank you for doing this. We truly appreciate
Speaker 1: you on what you're doing. And my understanding is that Okay,
Speaker 1: so you and your sister in law correct Jenny, you
Speaker 1: live in New York, so it's three thousand New York.
Speaker 1: You're three thousand miles Jersey, three thousand miles away. Pretty much.
Speaker 1: The fires are in California. Tell me what motivated you
Speaker 1: to say, you know what, I'm over here, that's over there,
Speaker 1: but I want to help.
Speaker 8: So I'm a mom and I'm also a childlife specialist,
Speaker 8: which nobody really knows who we are what we do,
Speaker 8: but we support kids and families through really challenging life experiences.
Speaker 8: Most of us work in pediatric hospital settings and help
Speaker 8: kids cope with hospitalization, prep them for surgeries and procedures
Speaker 8: and things like that. My job as a childlife specialist,
Speaker 8: I sometimes take kids back into the operating room when
Speaker 8: parents can't accompany them, and I help them cope while
Speaker 8: they're receiving at a season when they're going to sleep.
Speaker 8: And the number one thing that I always say is,
Speaker 8: let's bring that cozy inside, Let's bring that stuff animal,
Speaker 8: let's bring that lovey, let's bring that blank to. Whatever
Speaker 8: is going to make that child feel safe and comfortable
Speaker 8: when they're going into the operating room is what we need.
Speaker 8: Once the child falls asleep, I take that comfort in
Speaker 8: and I bring it like it's gold back to the
Speaker 8: waiting rooms. It's for the parents, and I tell them
Speaker 8: how their childs did falling asleep, and I give them
Speaker 8: that precious comfort I'm over.
Speaker 1: And it brings them comfort.
Speaker 8: So when the wildfire started, I was devastated.
Speaker 4: Like I think so many of us were across the country.
Speaker 8: And I found myself wondering what would I got if
Speaker 8: my house was on fire and it was my sons,
Speaker 8: my three year old's mama cheetah, that's like this ten
Speaker 8: year old thing that was from like my daughter's school store,
Speaker 8: and there's no chance that I'd ever be able to
Speaker 8: find it again. And I thought about, like all of
Speaker 8: these devastated children who have experienced probably hopefully the biggest
Speaker 8: tim and they'll ever experience in their life, And not
Speaker 8: only do they not have their home, and they don't
Speaker 8: have their familiar routine and school and all of these things,
Speaker 8: but they don't have a comfort item to even help
Speaker 8: them to feel any sort of.
Speaker 4: Normalcy or coping.
Speaker 8: Of course, hopefully, thank god they have their parents and
Speaker 8: their family and everybody's safe, but you know, a three
Speaker 8: year old, a four year old, of five year old,
Speaker 8: an eighteen year old feel safe when they have their comfort.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to tell you a quick story.
Speaker 1: Yeah this is not about me at all, but this
Speaker 1: is how I can relate. Years maybe nine years ago,
Speaker 1: before I had my second child, we lost our home.
Speaker 1: Not because of a fire, do We had a one
Speaker 1: of the living rooms. The ceiling collapsed and if they
Speaker 1: found us, best us. So it was self contained for
Speaker 1: whole god knows how long. But when that thing happened,
Speaker 1: it burst. So I remember coming from the gym and
Speaker 1: there's a contractor and the insurance company and they were
Speaker 1: like checking the air quality and they realized there's massive
Speaker 1: as bestos. This house is contaminated. You guys have to
Speaker 1: evacuate immediately. So we lost the house completely. What I'm
Speaker 1: telling you that I never went back to my house
Speaker 1: as it was because we couldn't because it was toxic.
Speaker 1: And picked up my daughter from preschool. She was maybe
Speaker 1: three and a half four years old, and it'said, Mamita,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take we're gonna go to grandma. We can
Speaker 1: go back home because there's been an issue and you're
Speaker 1: never gonna go back home, but it's okay, we're gonna
Speaker 1: get you everything. And she could have. Her little mind
Speaker 1: couldn't comprehend, and all she kept talking about was, well,
Speaker 1: what about my Blanky and Ellie?
Speaker 4: Ellie.
Speaker 1: Ellie was a little stuffed animal. And it was brutal
Speaker 1: and devastating to explain to her you're never gonna get
Speaker 1: to hold Blankey, you're Blanky and Ellie again. And it
Speaker 1: was a it was a big deal for her, you know.
Speaker 1: So I understand these all these fires and people that
Speaker 1: lost everything in an instant to talk to their children,
Speaker 1: you know, whether they're three, fourteen, twelve, seven, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really matter, and explaining to them life as you knew
Speaker 1: just change dramatically, you know, and to try to keep
Speaker 1: them at peace and at ease. People, so you're specifically
Speaker 1: going back to you. People will email you or they
Speaker 1: will send you a picture of an item and you
Speaker 1: will replicate you will find that same exact thing, and
Speaker 1: you send them over to the families.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so the power of the internet.
Speaker 8: We have an intake form on our on our Instagram
Speaker 8: page where families can fill out all of the information
Speaker 8: that we need to help find the set animals, So
Speaker 8: any pictures, any descriptions. Unfortunately, some families don't have pictures
Speaker 8: of the stuff animals. Most still any links if they
Speaker 8: got it from a website even five days ago or
Speaker 8: five years ago, any helpful information. And then we posted
Speaker 8: to our Instagram and the internet just goes crazy sloofing,
Speaker 8: and we have lots of people that just will find
Speaker 8: these things in like under five minutes.
Speaker 4: It's unbelievable.
Speaker 7: Wow.
Speaker 8: A father reached out to me and he said, my
Speaker 8: twelve year old, he's older, but he really misses this
Speaker 8: one stuffs animal.
Speaker 4: He was born in Amsterdam, which from the zoo in Amsterdam.
Speaker 8: I looked sort I'm sure you can't find it, and
Speaker 8: I posted it and literally within ten minutes, somebody reached
Speaker 8: out to me and said, I'm a former Angelino, I
Speaker 8: live in Amsterdam.
Speaker 4: I love fifteen minutes from the zoo. I'm taking my kids.
Speaker 8: We're going right now to the zoo to get this
Speaker 8: oh my to get this stuff's animal. And it's being
Speaker 8: sent to this family. And when I told the dad,
Speaker 8: he was like, what, oh my god, oh my god,
Speaker 8: You've found.
Speaker 4: It, like he just couldn't believe it.
Speaker 8: And the truth is that people are so eager to
Speaker 8: help California, like people just want to feel like they're
Speaker 8: making a difference because we feel so helpless.
Speaker 1: It gives me goose bones. That's amazing what you're doing.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you, how can people contact you, reached
Speaker 1: you to be able to help you help them?
Speaker 8: Honestly, we're doing so much through our Instagram, which has
Speaker 8: been really powerful and just posting the images and we're
Speaker 8: getting messages through there, so that's, you know, really a
Speaker 8: great way to get in touch is just through our
Speaker 8: Instagram and we're reading all the messages. It's only me
Speaker 8: and my my friend Amanda, so we are definitely we're
Speaker 8: getting through it, but it's just us. So we're actually
Speaker 8: headed to La tomorrow, which we are so excited about.
Speaker 4: We're going to meet some of the families we're working with.
Speaker 1: Oh that's correct, and we're excited. Awesome, And then tell
Speaker 1: me the handle for you Instagram is La Underscore Lost
Speaker 1: Underscore stuff, the Underscore project. Correct.
Speaker 8: So it was, but we realized that this project had
Speaker 8: legs and we want to help families just like yours.
Speaker 4: How old your daughter, by the way, you said she
Speaker 4: was three and a half.
Speaker 1: How old is she's now? She's thirteen, so she's a teenager.
Speaker 8: And she's still missing that stuff down out because we
Speaker 8: can find it.
Speaker 1: I swear on you know, I'm going to be saying
Speaker 1: that you have a picture.
Speaker 7: I am.
Speaker 8: I am dead serious because our hope is to expand
Speaker 8: this and to get reach every single family we've ever
Speaker 8: been touched by a fire or a flutter or anything
Speaker 8: that's happened that you've lost that comfort item. Our goal
Speaker 8: is to really take this kind of international that is
Speaker 8: so beautiful. So it's lost underscore, stuffy underscore project.
Speaker 3: That's what it is now.
Speaker 1: Thank you, thank you so much. I appreciate you. You're amazing.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you. Thank you so much for having me on.
Speaker 1: Of course, bye bye, take care bye. So this next
Speaker 1: story really got me. Darrek Coleman is the wife of
Speaker 1: a firefighter at the fire Station sixty nine the Pacific
Speaker 1: Poli Seats. I want you to hear this incredible story.
Speaker 1: So I'm just going to welcome her and her friend
Speaker 1: Michelle to the show. Hi, ladies, Welcome, Hi. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for doing this. So Darah, this is really
Speaker 1: I have so many questions for you, ladies, because I
Speaker 1: am fascinated about about the whole thing. But first I
Speaker 1: want to start with you Zarah, you are married. Your
Speaker 1: husband is a firefighter. Right, we all know that these
Speaker 1: fires were so severe and just almost supernatural what happened
Speaker 1: to the city. As a wife and also a mom, right,
Speaker 1: you have your husband going to work every twenty for
Speaker 1: seven because it became an old day. Yeah, but when
Speaker 1: you go. I have a husband that is a police
Speaker 1: officer but is an actress, so he goes to he plays.
Speaker 1: He's acting, so he comes back home after he wraps
Speaker 1: your case. You actually have somebody on duty for real,
Speaker 1: And how do you handle like going to bed and
Speaker 1: even navigating as a mom telling your kids, daddy is
Speaker 1: going to save some lives and save the community and
Speaker 1: it's very dangerous, but he'll be back. How do you
Speaker 1: deal with that?
Speaker 9: Oh? Yeah, that's it's definitely tough. But Chase and I've
Speaker 9: been married for about fourteen years now, So I like
Speaker 9: to tell other young firewives that you kind of get
Speaker 9: used to it, You get used to them being gone.
Speaker 9: And I know that his work is so important, meaningful
Speaker 9: to the city that he serves, So I mean, I
Speaker 9: just feel so honored to be a part of that,
Speaker 9: to be able to support him at home so he
Speaker 9: doesn't have to worry about anything but what he's doing
Speaker 9: out there. But as far as the kids, I mean,
Speaker 9: my kids are older, they're nine to twelve, so they
Speaker 9: are they understand a little bit more. I can explain
Speaker 9: a little bit more that you know that daddy's job
Speaker 9: is dangerous. However, he is very talented and skilled, and
Speaker 9: he works with other talented and skilled firefighters. So we
Speaker 9: just pray and we have faith that he's going to
Speaker 9: be safe and that he will you know, come home
Speaker 9: and be the amazing daddy he is. And he gets
Speaker 9: to come home and gives them hugs and cuddles and stuff.
Speaker 9: So yeah, it's it's it was tough early on, but
Speaker 9: I feel as like a veteran firewife, like there's definitely
Speaker 9: been some challenges that you just kind of lean into
Speaker 9: it because you see the goal overall of how important
Speaker 9: his job is and how is.
Speaker 1: It feeling now that he his job is to have,
Speaker 1: you know, and and protect a community and when you
Speaker 1: think about the policys, most of it is is pretty gone,
Speaker 1: you know, So mentally, how is he dealing with knowing
Speaker 1: that he community that where he works at it's just
Speaker 1: so bad right now?
Speaker 9: You know, the first that first week obviously was was
Speaker 9: so tough, and just hearing from him the first few
Speaker 9: days how defeated heart he sounded on the phone. It
Speaker 9: was heartbreaking because I knew that he felt shattered by
Speaker 9: what he was seeing out there, because that was his
Speaker 9: city that he is committed to serve. So yeah, overall,
Speaker 9: just you know, it's it's really heartbreaking thinking about everyone
Speaker 9: that's been displaced and been affected by the fires, because
Speaker 9: as you know, like we probably all know someone that's
Speaker 9: been affected. But yeah, it definitely was was tough those
Speaker 9: first couple of weeks of having to understand the emotional
Speaker 9: tour moil that he probably has was going through during
Speaker 9: that time.
Speaker 1: Okay, and I'm gonna now go to you, Michelle. What
Speaker 1: was your first reaction to the whole idea?
Speaker 5: Well, this is what's funny is that it was actually
Speaker 5: I opened up my app and it was a Facebook
Speaker 5: mommy's group in LA and she posted a punch list
Speaker 5: of what she needed. And I've worked in in tior
Speaker 5: design and like project management scarily for now like thirty years,
Speaker 5: and I saw her list and I.
Speaker 1: Was like, I can do that.
Speaker 10: I can do that.
Speaker 5: I can get the all tummer, I can get the mattresses.
Speaker 5: I know I can hustle and get this done, and
Speaker 5: I said, I wrote on there, I got you a
Speaker 5: messaging you directly, and I'm telling you it went. I
Speaker 5: worked for them for two weeks straight, basically full time,
Speaker 5: like as a pro bono volunteer, and.
Speaker 9: In that.
Speaker 1: It's been the most rewarding thing. Her Chase.
Speaker 5: Her husband is like one of the most honorable, amazing people.
Speaker 5: All of these guys are the same. They're just incredible
Speaker 5: human beings.
Speaker 1: And I saw the need of.
Speaker 5: I basically segued them into being my clients a bit
Speaker 5: of like advocating for them and listening to what they
Speaker 5: needed there. And I saw that they needed to get
Speaker 5: all that smoke damage out and at the time, the
Speaker 5: whole system was so overwhelmed that they needed our assistance
Speaker 5: in that first week or so after. So it's like
Speaker 5: the second phase of recovery for them, and it's basically
Speaker 5: their lives are changed, like all of us are. Every
Speaker 5: single one of our preschool friends is displaced right now,
Speaker 5: I have a five year old son. Every single one
Speaker 5: of them is displaced either, like I think ninety percent
Speaker 5: of them. One in Rustic Canyon didn't lose their house,
Speaker 5: but they're displaced still because of the evacuations. But every
Speaker 5: single one of our friends lost their homes and I
Speaker 5: just happened to move, so I'm housed. And I joked
Speaker 5: as a single mom, it's like you can't stop a
Speaker 5: single mom with a good night's sleep, no preschool germs
Speaker 5: or a cup of coffee. And that's sort of like
Speaker 5: they caught me on a good week and I was like,
Speaker 5: I can do this for them, and here we are.
Speaker 5: And then I brought in David Chokichi because he's married
Speaker 5: to a very good friend of mine, and he tagged
Speaker 5: team with me and we pulled up their carpet and
Speaker 5: then we started getting phone calls from other captives.
Speaker 3: Like how did you get this done?
Speaker 1: And then I started like we started.
Speaker 5: Hooking up or trying to figure out how to help them,
Speaker 5: but find like now the foundation, LAFD Foundation is on board,
Speaker 5: and I'm happy to help them and there's a huge need,
Speaker 5: Like I went to the city hall last night in
Speaker 5: the at Santa Monica City College to stay informed of
Speaker 5: like the next steps, and David inspired me a lot
Speaker 5: because he's been in the public sphere for a long time,
Speaker 5: and he gave me really good advice about just like
Speaker 5: this is the time I.
Speaker 1: Just spoke to him and he was just amazing and
Speaker 1: all the work is doing with animals is yes, really incredible.
Speaker 1: How can people help you, ladies? You know, because for
Speaker 1: all the listeners that they're like from Los Angeles or
Speaker 1: even far away, and they are asking asking how can
Speaker 1: I help? How can we what else is needed for
Speaker 1: you guys to continue this mission?
Speaker 9: Well, for me, I feel like just you know, there
Speaker 9: has been an outpouring of physical donations to the fire station.
Speaker 9: So I think at this time, if people want to
Speaker 9: contribute just contributing to the fire Foundation, and if they
Speaker 9: want to specifically help Station sixty nine, they can make
Speaker 9: a notation to you know, to contribute allocate their funds
Speaker 9: to Station sixty nine.
Speaker 5: There's a drop down menu on the website where you
Speaker 5: can choose your stations.
Speaker 1: Just interjecting as.
Speaker 9: Right right now, you're right, and then long term, I mean,
Speaker 9: another organization that is so dear to our hearts as
Speaker 9: a fire fan is the Widow's Orphans and Disabled Firefighters.
Speaker 9: They're an organization that helps fire families long after the
Speaker 9: crisis is over. So that's also really important. So just
Speaker 9: two organizations that would be helpful.
Speaker 1: Beautiful, Well, thank you so much, ladies. I truly appreciate
Speaker 1: all you're doing. And yeah, I think listeners are going
Speaker 1: to really relate to what you guys are doing and
Speaker 1: get inspired, you know, and encouraged to also help. Thank
Speaker 1: you for having me, of course. Bye bye. Now we
Speaker 1: have doctor Paan McGee, the executive director and principle of
Speaker 1: Policics Charter High School that has suffered immense damage displays
Speaker 1: in the student body.
Speaker 7: Hi.
Speaker 6: Yeah, how are you?
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for doing this today? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: thanks for thank you for doing it, of course, no,
Speaker 1: I love it. Let me ask you explain what happened
Speaker 1: to the school exactly.
Speaker 9: So.
Speaker 11: Palastage Charter High School, along with so many arts and
Speaker 11: homes and businesses in the Palisades, was severely damaged by
Speaker 11: the Palisades fire. On our campus. We're fortunate that our
Speaker 11: historic front of the campus buildings are still intact, but
Speaker 11: more than twenty classrooms at the back of our campus,
Speaker 11: along with our study center, our media lab which was
Speaker 11: brand new, along with computer labs, completely wiped out by
Speaker 11: the fire.
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable how many students have been displaced.
Speaker 11: So we have a student body of three thousand students
Speaker 11: and they come from all over Los Angeles. Approximately six
Speaker 11: hundred live in the immediate palisades. All of those students
Speaker 11: are displaced, as well as others that live in surrounding areas.
Speaker 11: So at this point, I would say all of our
Speaker 11: students are kind of scattered while we work to make
Speaker 11: sure that we can bring our school back together. Currently
Speaker 11: we're using remote learning. That not ideal for students who
Speaker 11: came through the pandemic, and you really do want to
Speaker 11: be in person with their peers and with the teachers.
Speaker 11: So much more effective for learning and just for social
Speaker 11: emotional well being.
Speaker 1: I know, I agree. It's it's it's absolutely devastating. And
Speaker 1: let me ask you, how long do you think it's
Speaker 1: going to take for you guys to be able to rebuild.
Speaker 1: And there's going to be any health concerns with having
Speaker 1: the kids back on campus.
Speaker 11: God, well, we will not return until we are absolutely
Speaker 11: sure that it's a safe environment. I think we're in
Speaker 11: that process now, you know, going through that whole examination
Speaker 11: and mitigation.
Speaker 3: And campus is clean.
Speaker 11: As I said, the front of the campus could absolutely
Speaker 11: be used once it's cleaned, but it does have to
Speaker 11: be thoroughly clean. We'd never want our students are staffed
Speaker 11: to be in a safe space that's not safe. But
Speaker 11: once we have that, I mean, I think we may
Speaker 11: be able to return sooner, maybe rather than expected, so
Speaker 11: we can use the front of our campus while construct
Speaker 11: is happening at the back to restore the buildings that
Speaker 11: were destroyed.
Speaker 1: You know, in situations like this another the kids are homeschooled,
Speaker 1: the life changes, it went from one day to the next,
Speaker 1: you know, this situation was just absolutely horrific, you know,
Speaker 1: and to be able to deal with these kids when
Speaker 1: it comes to their mental health and how to navigate.
Speaker 1: I know, parents, of course have their responsibility, and I'm
Speaker 1: sure they do, you know, talk to them and you
Speaker 1: go to the proper therapists, you know, a psychologists or
Speaker 1: as a mom you know myself, you know, we talk
Speaker 1: to them. But as a school that this came so
Speaker 1: unexpected and the kids are not homeschool but I'm assuming
Speaker 1: the parents and the teachers are all relying on the
Speaker 1: community of the police school. How do you guys deal
Speaker 1: with their mental health?
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, we've been really fortunate.
Speaker 11: I mean, our school has always really put mental health
Speaker 11: at the front of a lot of things that we do.
Speaker 11: Students have shared with us how important that is, and
Speaker 11: so we really tried, even before the pandemic to invest
Speaker 11: heavily having a mental health support team, you know, making
Speaker 11: sure that we're constantly sharing resources. This was, as you said,
Speaker 11: so unexpected. We've had to, you know, pivot, make sure
Speaker 11: that we're providing more resources that are out and available
Speaker 11: in the community and unfortunately all around us. I mean,
Speaker 11: there's so many entities that are providing those resources, but
Speaker 11: you know, for us, for the parents and the students
Speaker 11: who are staying connected with us, they're absolutely wonderful mental
Speaker 11: health resources, counselors that students can speak with, parents can
Speaker 11: speak with, and also to help make connections that may
Speaker 11: be closer to their homes so that they have those
Speaker 11: resources to follow up with while they're trying to get settled.
Speaker 11: I mean, there's so many homes and families where you know,
Speaker 11: they don't have their home, and then others where they've
Speaker 11: been impacted in other ways. So just really trying to
Speaker 11: pull together as a community to make sure that we're
Speaker 11: all working together to support each other absolutely, to support
Speaker 11: our kids.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about raise Polly, you know, the fundraiser.
Speaker 1: I want people to know how to about how to
Speaker 1: help you guys.
Speaker 11: So raise pally is easy to access if you you
Speaker 11: can either go to the there's a special link, or
Speaker 11: just go to our school website palihi dot org and
Speaker 11: there's a pop up that will come up immediately that
Speaker 11: will show you, you know, take you directly to the
Speaker 11: donation link. We are working to raise funds to make
Speaker 11: sure that we're able to relocate. It will be a
Speaker 11: temporary location, but you know, doing everything we can to
Speaker 11: get our students back in person while we work through
Speaker 11: these other pieces of cleaning our campus and restoring it.
Speaker 11: You know, we need we need help as far as
Speaker 11: providing extra field trip buses. We want to make sure
Speaker 11: that during this period when we're having to rely on
Speaker 11: virtual instruction, we're still providing lots of opportunities for kids
Speaker 11: to be engaged and connected out in the community, because
Speaker 11: that's what's really so important to them and what keeps
Speaker 11: them really motivated and coming and being engaged in school.
Speaker 11: You know, obviously it's athletics or our athletics are ongoing,
Speaker 11: our clubs are ongoing, our performance, all of those are
Speaker 11: things that we're keeping happening even where they're in this
Speaker 11: virtual moment and it kind of displays from our campus.
Speaker 1: That's amazing and all of those resources.
Speaker 11: So, however, the community a if you can let us know,
Speaker 11: if you're a studio and you're open to having students
Speaker 11: come in and look and see what's going on, our
Speaker 11: media class would so appreciate that. And the same is
Speaker 11: true with all types of hands on activities museums, but
Speaker 11: also helping us fund ways to get the kids there,
Speaker 11: whether it's providing buses or just donations that help us
Speaker 11: get kids to athletic events or whatever may be open
Speaker 11: and available out in the community.
Speaker 1: That's great. Thank you so much for that. That's very
Speaker 1: specific and that's what we needed. People want specificity so
Speaker 1: we know exactly what to do. So thank you so much. Fun,
Speaker 1: We really appreciate your time.
Speaker 11: Thank you so much for having us on, and thank
Speaker 11: you for supporting Pali Hi.
Speaker 1: Of course, Neuro Weinstein and Kelly Sawyer Patrikov are the
Speaker 1: founders of the organization Baby to Baby, which delivers basic
Speaker 1: necessities for children in underserved communities. They were named one
Speaker 1: of Time magazines twenty twenty four most influential people and
Speaker 1: are here to share with us how Baby to Baby
Speaker 1: has been helping in this crisis. Hi ladies, how are you?
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here with us.
Speaker 10: Of course, thank you for having us.
Speaker 1: So I'm going to refer to my notes over here.
Speaker 1: Baby Too Baby has distributed over six million emergency supplies
Speaker 1: in response to the LA fire crisis. How have you
Speaker 1: been able to coordinate? Because there's a lot, It's just
Speaker 1: an incredible amount, all of this. How do you make
Speaker 1: it happen?
Speaker 12: Baby to Baby all year long, for over a decade,
Speaker 12: supplies basic essentials to children around the country. We support
Speaker 12: a million children per year, so when something like this happens,
Speaker 12: we are prepared because it is our everyday work. While
Speaker 12: we're a national organization, we are very much born in
Speaker 12: Los Angeles and it's our hometown, so we have very
Speaker 12: deep relationships and know how to reach vulnerable kids at
Speaker 12: these moments. We have a network of four hundred and
Speaker 12: seventy partners in Las Angels alone, and that spans evacuation centers,
Speaker 12: resource centers, homeless shelters, hospitals, schools, and so we were
Speaker 12: able to reach out to them immediately.
Speaker 1: And listen and find out what their needs were.
Speaker 12: In these fires, which are always very specific to children,
Speaker 12: like diapers and wipes and formula and hygiene items and
Speaker 12: cribs and car seats and strollers. And then we were
Speaker 12: able to immediately dive into action, sending our trucks filled
Speaker 12: with these supplies into in and around Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. As a mom, and you guys are moms
Speaker 1: as well, how is it? How do you feel? Because
Speaker 1: the organization is doing incredible work. Incredible work, Like you said,
Speaker 1: you have a lot of resources and you've been very blessed,
Speaker 1: you know, to have the distributors and the people that
Speaker 1: are supporting you on behind you. But right at a
Speaker 1: human level, when you see these kids that they're in
Speaker 1: need and you guys are able to provide them and
Speaker 1: you hand that to that child, what does it mean
Speaker 1: to you? Ladies? When you see that phase? You slide up.
Speaker 10: We were in Pasadena this weekend at a distribution and
Speaker 10: you know, we're distributing basic supplies, basic emergency essentials like
Speaker 10: diapers and formula and gets, some warm coats and clothing.
Speaker 10: But we also try and you know, add some joy
Speaker 10: for the children. So we build a toy shop and
Speaker 10: we do distribute toys, even though perhaps they're not an
Speaker 10: emergency essential. But to us, we want to see kids,
Speaker 10: you know, have smiles on their faces. We want to
Speaker 10: bring back a little joy into their lives. And the
Speaker 10: resiliency of the children is amazing. They are smiling, they
Speaker 10: are hugging, and they're giving you high fives. They're really incredible.
Speaker 10: And so as a mom just seeing that, you know,
Speaker 10: we're both so it feels so proud that we can
Speaker 10: help in any way right now.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. People listening, you know, they're asking themselves how
Speaker 1: can I help? What can I do? You know, and
Speaker 1: we're facilitating all this help, like you, guys, how can
Speaker 1: people help bigitter Baby.
Speaker 12: It continues to be true that donating money is the
Speaker 12: most helpful, whether to baby to baby or any other
Speaker 12: amazing organization on the ground right now. And the reason
Speaker 12: is is that it allows organizations like ours to do
Speaker 12: our work the most efficiently, and efficiency and timeless timeliness
Speaker 12: matters a lot in a disaster. But in other ways,
Speaker 12: we do accept big palatized corporate donations, and that means
Speaker 12: in our high need items. So that means that a
Speaker 12: corporation can donate to us thousands or hundreds of thousands
Speaker 12: or millions of high needed items like bottles of shampoo
Speaker 12: and soap and cans of formula.
Speaker 6: And clean water.
Speaker 12: We are not, unfortunately, taking individual donations like a gently
Speaker 12: used or even new item of clothing from an individual.
Speaker 12: And again, while we know how incredibly well intentioned that is,
Speaker 12: it burdens our system. And I think that's for almost
Speaker 12: every organization in this space, and it doesn't allow us
Speaker 12: to do our most efficient work when we're getting in
Speaker 12: these palatized donations in such a high pressure time. So
Speaker 12: people can donate money if they are a corporation, they
Speaker 12: can donate in these larger, more organized ways, and then
Speaker 12: they can also volunteer at our headquarters if they.
Speaker 13: Are in fact local.
Speaker 1: Amazing, Well, thank you so much, ladies, what you do,
Speaker 1: it is pretty incredible, and we so much appreciated. Thank you,
Speaker 1: Thank you. I love love this girl. She has so
Speaker 1: much energy that it pops out of your television screens.
Speaker 1: She's using every little bit of it and she's helping
Speaker 1: communities in a lay. If you are part of her
Speaker 1: contact list, let me tell you she's gonna be calling
Speaker 1: you very soon. Because there's nothing know, things slowing down
Speaker 1: GMI on a mission. Hi guys, JINEMI, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for doing this. Yes, of course, thank you for
Speaker 1: having me is. I'm a big fan and I'm even
Speaker 1: more now with all this work, incredible work that you're doing.
Speaker 1: I don't know how you do everything, but you do
Speaker 1: it all and you do it well. And I cannot
Speaker 1: wait for you to talk to me and to the
Speaker 1: audience about what you're doing the Dream Center. How can
Speaker 1: people help your involvement all of that.
Speaker 14: Yes, well, first off, thank you, sorry, thank you for
Speaker 14: so much. I'm in the middle of mom mode and
Speaker 14: figuring out life like everybody else here in La So
Speaker 14: I just appreciate you like being able to cover something
Speaker 14: like this, and we need the encouragement and we also
Speaker 14: need direction to guide people on what they can do.
Speaker 4: So I'm super here.
Speaker 6: Love it.
Speaker 1: So talk to me. What have you been doing? How
Speaker 1: can people help you continue to help? Talk to me?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 14: So, at this very moment, the great news is that
Speaker 14: it rained we've been wanting that. We needed that more
Speaker 14: than anything, and it revived everybody. It reminded everybody to
Speaker 14: keep strong and be resilient and to keep doing what
Speaker 14: we've been doing. I think that The most amazing visual
Speaker 14: I've ever seen in all of the twenty five years
Speaker 14: that I've lived in LA is seeing the city come
Speaker 14: together in every way possible. I never received one, No,
Speaker 14: it was more of how and how much LA poured
Speaker 14: when it came to outreach servitude. This morning, I was
Speaker 14: just talking to one of the leading celebrity facialists in
Speaker 14: Los ang Angeles, Shawne. Darden, who graciously offered pampering for
Speaker 14: the first responders, the females who have not had a
Speaker 14: day off since the day of the fire.
Speaker 4: I can't even book an appointment to get in with
Speaker 4: Seohn opening up her services.
Speaker 14: Because everybody, no matter what you have, you can give,
Speaker 14: we all need to help in some way. And so
Speaker 14: the number one thing I would say I'm encouraging anybody
Speaker 14: to help is still donate essentials are needed on the daily.
Speaker 4: I would speak for.
Speaker 14: The La Dream Center, one of the organizations, one of
Speaker 14: the only organizations in LA that has not turned away
Speaker 14: donations because they have a line full of hundreds of
Speaker 14: cars every single day from six am all the way
Speaker 14: tom driving through getting donations of toilet paper, feminine hygiene products, diapers,
Speaker 14: baby formula, clothing. We're good at I think clothing across
Speaker 14: LA being one of the fashion capitals of the world.
Speaker 14: We've covered that, but we still need essentials as far
Speaker 14: as the daily living. The same things that you order
Speaker 14: daily from Amazon or Target, when you stop by Target,
Speaker 14: you stop by Trader Joe's, those are the same.
Speaker 4: Things that we need in Altadena.
Speaker 14: At this point, I'm not only continuing to donate and
Speaker 14: telling everybody to donate to Dream Center, but I'm also
Speaker 14: receiving donations for hot meals to be delivered in Altadena
Speaker 14: because at this very moment, the families still don't have
Speaker 14: power or running water, and they have strict rules to
Speaker 14: not cook and they have to be in.
Speaker 4: Perfume is six pm.
Speaker 14: So if you can imagine, first of all, Altadena's freezing
Speaker 14: at three point thirty pm. I was there the other
Speaker 14: day and it was fifty degrees. Well, imagine these families.
Speaker 14: If they've lost their house, they're they're bunking with some
Speaker 14: of the families that haven't lost their houses, their neighbors
Speaker 14: in that area, or if they haven't lost their house,
Speaker 14: they're securing their house because there is a string of
Speaker 14: professional looters that have camped out around Altadena to infiltrate
Speaker 14: the homes. I think to date, I think about fifty
Speaker 14: two different looters have been arrested by Now wow.
Speaker 1: And let me ask you something. Should we be encouraging
Speaker 1: like I'm assuming the restaurants are showing not correct, a
Speaker 1: lot of restaurants are actually donating meals and chips are cooking.
Speaker 1: Like is there more food needs? Should we knock on
Speaker 1: doors more restaurants and people to discos.
Speaker 14: Yes, that would be amazing if I sent out an
Speaker 14: Instagram post saying, any local restaurants in Altadena.
Speaker 4: If you're working, you're in business.
Speaker 14: We want to donate to you so that you can
Speaker 14: make meals or if you would like to donate meals,
Speaker 14: we'd love to take it. So Vedos Restaurant, a long
Speaker 14: running family owned Mexican restaurant, has been incredible feeding Altadena.
Speaker 4: Another restaurant was called Womb's Kitchen.
Speaker 14: They've been a Chinese restaurant that's been feeding Altadena as well. So, yes,
Speaker 14: any local restaurants in Altadena, in Pasadena, anywhere in the
Speaker 14: surrounding area, let's keep the business alive.
Speaker 4: And if you also want to help support all of the.
Speaker 14: People that have been affected, not just people who aren't
Speaker 14: who have lost their homes, but the service people that
Speaker 14: used to help service fee homes or the businesses around
Speaker 14: Altadena or Pasadena.
Speaker 4: I have a Google doc that I can forward to you.
Speaker 14: Babysitters, gardeners, dog walkers, every deep type of person that
Speaker 14: has been helping all of these displaced families.
Speaker 4: Our job right now. If you are supporting LA, if
Speaker 4: you're from.
Speaker 14: LA, or if you're just a friend to LA, we
Speaker 14: need people to help keep the eco system alive.
Speaker 4: You know, not only can you donate, but you can
Speaker 4: hire these people that have lost their jobs.
Speaker 14: You can help to contact the LA Dream Center who
Speaker 14: are organizing clean up crews and they're going out in
Speaker 14: the next couple of weeks to help clean up all
Speaker 14: the ash and the debris because as you can see this,
Speaker 14: there's no way this is going to be cleaned up
Speaker 14: because we're already short on firefighters and service workers.
Speaker 4: To be able to mean this, we need actual people
Speaker 4: to help.
Speaker 14: So the great thing about LA is whatever you can do,
Speaker 14: it is it is absolutely necessary and it can be welcomed.
Speaker 1: That's incredible, Gennima, You're amazing. It's so much stuff that
Speaker 1: is needed, guys, and you know what you know what happens,
Speaker 1: I think with people because oh, the fires are under control, Okay,
Speaker 1: so the news they're not playing it as much. Therefore,
Speaker 1: oh it's okay, it's gone, and people forget. And the
Speaker 1: reality is this is something that is going to continue
Speaker 1: the struggle all these families. It's going to contribute for
Speaker 1: a while, So it's not a one time thing and
Speaker 1: then I did my part and I'm out. You know,
Speaker 1: it has to be an ongoing effort because it's going
Speaker 1: to take them a while to be able to get
Speaker 1: back to what they consider normal.
Speaker 14: Yeah, and I want to emphasize when you say a while,
Speaker 14: we're talking about something close to maybe ten years to rebuild.
Speaker 14: I mean we're talking about complete communities and lives that
Speaker 14: are going to be transformed as of now. You know,
Speaker 14: to rebuild the structures is one thing, But to bring
Speaker 14: the community back together so that it feels safe and
Speaker 14: it's thriving, that all depends on us.
Speaker 4: So we don't want people to lose jobs that they
Speaker 4: have to move away.
Speaker 14: We don't want to make housing so unaffordable that people
Speaker 14: can't afford housing. These are all things that we have
Speaker 14: to mindfully all do our parts so that we don't
Speaker 14: change what the ecosystem was in LA, but we instead
Speaker 14: make it stronger because we band together, but all together,
Speaker 14: we need to all recognize that there needs to be
Speaker 14: grace across the board, whether you work for an insurance
Speaker 14: company or you can hire an employee that has been displaced,
Speaker 14: or you can be mindful about just the community being
Speaker 14: shaken up and just be more gentler as we move
Speaker 14: around each other in this uncertain time.
Speaker 4: Yes, let's get do our part.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Well, thank you, Jini Mine, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Please follow her on Instagram your next level, your next level,
Speaker 1: and we hear you and thank you for all you do.
Speaker 4: Is of course, and donate to Dream Center.
Speaker 14: Please donate to Dream Center, call them, make financial donations.
Speaker 14: They are not only accepting donations to hand out to
Speaker 14: displace families, but they shelter actual families who have lost
Speaker 14: their homes as well. At this very moment, I think
Speaker 14: they've got about thirty families that they're housing. So just
Speaker 14: please please do support Dream Center. If you want to
Speaker 14: pick one place that is working three hundred and sixty
Speaker 14: five days a year and plug in and help out
Speaker 14: whatever you can give, Like Shanny Darted maybe it's a
Speaker 14: facial to one of our first responders.
Speaker 1: There you have it, well, Thank you so much, mama,
Speaker 1: have a great day. Avasasomation is providing marginalized populations with
Speaker 1: footword to encourage healthier lifestyles. Its founder, Drinking Mendiaz, is
Speaker 1: out in the street handing out sneakers to those who
Speaker 1: have none. Let's find out more about this story. Hi Eranging,
Speaker 1: Hello there, How are you good and yourself?
Speaker 13: I am good.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining this amazing special that
Speaker 1: we have going here to help people. I want you
Speaker 1: to talk to me about your story because I believe
Speaker 1: that this is very close to you in terms of
Speaker 1: like you remember the time that when you had somebody
Speaker 1: give you two pairs of shoes and that moment, I'm
Speaker 1: assuming we're in marching for life.
Speaker 15: Yeah, it changed everything, you know, in different phases of
Speaker 15: my life. It changed you know, being a kid that
Speaker 15: couldn't afford shoes. It changed my confidence, and then you know,
Speaker 15: into my teens in early twenties, you know, it changed
Speaker 15: my the way I dressed and how I put outfits together,
Speaker 15: and you know, confidence even through through my twenties. But
Speaker 15: then you know, in my thirties sneakers. They didn't mean
Speaker 15: the same thing as they once did, so I, uh, yeah,
Speaker 15: I started questioning everything, you know, sadness and just my career,
Speaker 15: like everything wasn't where I wanted to be, you know.
Speaker 15: And I had all these shoes in my in my collection,
Speaker 15: and I just wasn't happy. And you know, one one
Speaker 15: day I decided, uh to give them away and use
Speaker 15: my you know, my passion for photography to tell the
Speaker 15: journey of the sneaker. So they started in my collection
Speaker 15: and then they went to somebody else that could use
Speaker 15: them more than me, and I changed directions and with
Speaker 15: the idea and just you know, deciding to give away
Speaker 15: my collection. Uh that that was the birth of have
Speaker 15: a Soul.
Speaker 1: Do you remember a specific moment of you giving away
Speaker 1: a pair to some kid and the reaction that the
Speaker 1: kid had.
Speaker 15: I do, I do remember. There's there's many moments that
Speaker 15: you know, we've been doing this since twenty fourteen, so
Speaker 15: there's just you know, thousands of kids and young adults
Speaker 15: and you know, even the elderly that we've we've been
Speaker 15: able to put some fresh pairs of sneakers on. But
Speaker 15: you know, the first thing that comes to mind is
Speaker 15: I think maybe twenty sixteen. We were at a shelter
Speaker 15: downtown of LA and this we were doing something for
Speaker 15: the holidays, and this family came in late and we
Speaker 15: were already packed up. We packed up everything that we'd
Speaker 15: collected for the Christmas event, toys, books, clothes, shoes, everything,
Speaker 15: and I just remember the two teen boys being very
Speaker 15: grateful that we were there, even though they didn't get anything.
Speaker 15: So long story short with that, my friend ended up
Speaker 15: giving the shoes off his feet pair of Jordan Eleven's concords,
Speaker 15: probably one of the you know, most favorite shoes that
Speaker 15: people in the sneaker game love, right, So they he
Speaker 15: got those shoes and we collected the sizes for the
Speaker 15: rest of the family and came back another day. But
Speaker 15: he was I think seventeen. Yeah, he was about seventeen
Speaker 15: years old when my friend gave him the shoes off
Speaker 15: his feet. And when he was twenty one years old,
Speaker 15: five years later, he DMed me and was like, hey, man,
Speaker 15: I this is Elijah. Do you remember me? This is
Speaker 15: I was like, of course, So now he's all grown
Speaker 15: up and he's like, I want to come back out
Speaker 15: and volunteer.
Speaker 6: You know that.
Speaker 15: That week came out and gave shoes with us. So
Speaker 15: that's one moment that was kind of full circle for me.
Speaker 1: That's pain and forward. You know that, that's incredible one
Speaker 1: of those moments.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 1: How can people help your mission if they want to
Speaker 1: volunteer and join your you know, your your program, how
Speaker 1: can they do that?
Speaker 15: Yeah, I mean it's it's a difficult question to answer
Speaker 15: right now because we're in the middle of just all
Speaker 15: this chaos that la with the wildfire, and you know,
Speaker 15: some of our needs have shifted. So we're currently fundraising
Speaker 15: for sneaker gift cards for kids because we're limited on
Speaker 15: sneakers sizes for children, So you know, we're purchasing gift
Speaker 15: cards from different shoe stores fifty dollars apiece so that
Speaker 15: when we give shoes to the parents, we can also
Speaker 15: hand them a gift card and it doesn't feel like
Speaker 15: the kids are left out. So we're also running low
Speaker 15: on women's inventory. So if our women's sneaker heads out
Speaker 15: there want to give up some shoes, like, we'd be happy.
Speaker 15: Mostly looking for sizes eight, nine, ten, and then also
Speaker 15: like six and seven would help a lot. So yeah,
Speaker 15: I mean, we're just trying to make sure that we
Speaker 15: are lacing up the families that have lost everything right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that's incredible. And people, how can they find you?
Speaker 1: The website is have asoul dot com. Yeah, and on
Speaker 1: Instagram the same thing at have a Soul, I have
Speaker 1: a Soul? Correct, Yeah, h A V A S O
Speaker 1: L E.
Speaker 15: There's no E in the half.
Speaker 1: So but you'll find us.
Speaker 15: We're we're out there. We've been doing this for over
Speaker 15: ten years.
Speaker 1: That's amazing. Well, we appreciate you, Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for doing this.
Speaker 15: Thank you for the invitation.
Speaker 1: Of course. Joining me now is Richard au CEO of
Speaker 1: a very well known Los Angeles charity called Project Angel Food.
Speaker 1: Governor Knewsom and his family recently visited and volunteered their
Speaker 1: time at Project Angel Food to help get meals to
Speaker 1: the people who needed them.
Speaker 13: Hello, Hi, Hi, how are you?
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for doing this. We appreciate you.
Speaker 13: Oh my god, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1: We're going to do have I have questions here that
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, right so we can cover
Speaker 1: everything on the amazing what you're doing. So talk to me.
Speaker 1: I want to know how does a person react when
Speaker 1: you provide them a meal? That otherwise they wouldn't have.
Speaker 13: You know, Project Angel Food has been around for thirty
Speaker 13: five years, and we feed people who are sick, hungry,
Speaker 13: and alone, and we provide them with medically tailored meals.
Speaker 13: So it's not just food, it's food that helps them
Speaker 13: get better. And so we are providing meals for people
Speaker 13: not just impacted by the fires, but impacted by illness
Speaker 13: and poverty. So there are layers of things going on.
Speaker 13: And so our founder Mary Anne Williamson says, when you're
Speaker 13: delivering food to someone, you're delivering love. And so what
Speaker 13: happens when you knock at the door and you wait
Speaker 13: for that client to answer the door, it is a
Speaker 13: huge warm of gratitude coming at you.
Speaker 6: That's what you feel.
Speaker 1: That's incredible and what has been the biggest impact made
Speaker 1: on you personally through your work at the organization. You've
Speaker 1: been with organization for how many years now?
Speaker 13: I've been here for nine years. And I will tell
Speaker 13: you if rosalind, if you ask yourself what's my legacy,
Speaker 13: I have asked myself that in my entire life, my
Speaker 13: legacy is Project Angel Food. My legacy is taking care
Speaker 13: of the most vulnerable among us. This is what my
Speaker 13: mark is going to be and so I feel every
Speaker 13: day that I come to work, I'm helping people. I
Speaker 13: feel it. It's tangible. We could prepare and deliver one
Speaker 13: point five million meals a year. He's one done individually,
Speaker 13: each one powered by people, volunteers or staff, and delivered
Speaker 13: by volunteers and staff.
Speaker 1: How many How many people do you have? How many
Speaker 1: are part of this big machine to be able to
Speaker 1: accomplish something so huge and incredible.
Speaker 13: We have ninety eight people on staff and thousands of
Speaker 13: volunteers right now, I just walked from our kitchen. Here,
Speaker 13: young and the restless is volunteering, every hunk, every beautiful star,
Speaker 13: They're all there, and I gotta go. I got to
Speaker 13: talk to Roslin Sanchez play with I love it, and I.
Speaker 1: Way to volunteer. So let me ask you. If they
Speaker 1: help prepare the meals or they deliver the meals, if
Speaker 1: I want to help Tomorrow, I call you, I said,
Speaker 1: you know, Richard, I want to go on volunteer. What
Speaker 1: exactly do I do?
Speaker 13: Either volunteer in the kitchen, so you help prepare meals,
Speaker 13: you chop vegetables. The governor and the first family they
Speaker 13: chopped vegetables and they also packed meals for us. So
Speaker 13: we have these lean cuisine type trays. It's an assembly line.
Speaker 13: One person does the potatoes, another person does the protein,
Speaker 13: someone else does the veggies, and so it goes through
Speaker 13: a conveyor belt kind of like I love Lucy Chocolate episode,
Speaker 13: and then it gets heat sealed, and then someone else
Speaker 13: puts a label on it that tells you what the
Speaker 13: ingredients are. So that's one thing, and then you can
Speaker 13: also volunteer to deliver and see the clients who get
Speaker 13: the meals, and you know what that's really both are beautiful.
Speaker 13: But I just delivered to one of the clients yesterday
Speaker 13: who lost his home in Altadena. All he said is
Speaker 13: standing is the chimney. And his name is Richard, just
Speaker 13: like me, and he's Armenian. His whole family came from Armenia.
Speaker 13: And he said, you know, thank you so much for
Speaker 13: the meals, Thank you so much. We gave grocery kits
Speaker 13: to him, so non perishable items so that if he
Speaker 13: has another emergency he can take it. And we gave
Speaker 13: him hygiene items, you know, shampoo, conditioner all gone, and
Speaker 13: so we also gave him a thousand dollars gift card
Speaker 13: from Walmart, and he said, the first thing I'm going
Speaker 13: to buy is an electric razor.
Speaker 1: Wow, isn't that unbelievable? Oh my god, it's incredible what
Speaker 1: you guys do. Okay, how has Project Intel Food had
Speaker 1: to change their normal operation in order to attack the
Speaker 1: need in the Los Angeles area.
Speaker 13: So the thing about the Project Angel Food is we're
Speaker 13: here before and during and after a crisis. So when
Speaker 13: the food trucks are gone, the evacuation centers are closed down,
Speaker 13: we're still here and we're still taking care of people.
Speaker 13: So what we have found is there's a lot of
Speaker 13: people who have respiratory problems or mobility issues and need food.
Speaker 13: In fact, I just got an email before I got here,
Speaker 13: and I'll read it to you because it kind of
Speaker 13: exemplifies what happens here. My name is Anna, and my
Speaker 13: husband and I lost our home due to the eating fire.
Speaker 13: I heard of Project Angel Food through a friend. We're
Speaker 13: currently living at the Romata Hotel in Pasadena. My husband
Speaker 13: has mobility problems. We have two dogs. It's difficult for
Speaker 13: me to get around. Can I qualify? The answer is yes,
Speaker 13: We're getting animals today.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, Richard, I'm going to cry. That's amazing.
Speaker 13: So what your point is, we're pivoting anyone with a
Speaker 13: mobility issue, anyone with respiratory problems in the impacted area.
Speaker 13: We're fast tracking you where you call us work in
Speaker 13: the dispense with the usual forms and going to get
Speaker 13: your service. So we were processing about one hundred people
Speaker 13: as we speak to join our service, beyond the twenty
Speaker 13: seven hundred we serve every day.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable, incredible, God bless you guys. This is an incredible
Speaker 1: thing that you guys do, feeding people, helping people mentally, physically, emotionally,
Speaker 1: making them smile again. It's truly incredible. Talk about legacy, man,
Speaker 1: I'm going to go to bed tonight thinking, Ross, what's
Speaker 1: your legacy?
Speaker 4: Really talked?
Speaker 1: That really talked to me. So thank you so much
Speaker 1: for that, because it's important. It's important to go through
Speaker 1: life with a purpose and intention and moments like this
Speaker 1: when communities have to get together to help. You know
Speaker 1: how incredible you sleep at night when you close your
Speaker 1: eyes and you say, you know, I just changed someone's
Speaker 1: life today. It's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 13: It is a beautiful thing. And I have someone who
Speaker 13: works here who packs our meals for us. Her name
Speaker 13: is Laura, and Laura said, what I know is the
Speaker 13: meal I'm packing here is going to end up in
Speaker 13: a smile at someone's own and so I love that
Speaker 13: she sees that vision. She's never met the client, but
Speaker 13: she knows she's on them. People come here for the mission,
Speaker 13: and there are people who come here for a job,
Speaker 13: but they stay here for the mission.
Speaker 1: Wow Wow, beautifully said, thank you, Richard, thank you so much.
Speaker 13: Thank you for shining the spotlight on us. Of course
Speaker 13: for making us one of those helpers that you're showcasing.
Speaker 1: Of course well deserved.
Speaker 13: Godless and Roslyn, I want you to come to the
Speaker 13: kitchen asat I will.
Speaker 1: I don't cook that well, but I'm going to do
Speaker 1: it with so much love and so much passion that
Speaker 1: it will be amazing. I promise.
Speaker 13: Thank you, Thank you.
Speaker 1: I Heeart, Bye bye Baby. List of Beverly Hills is
Speaker 1: operating families in NITA space to pick up not only
Speaker 1: strollers and cribs and essential gadgets for your children, but
Speaker 1: also realizing there is a string of months and providing
Speaker 1: them with personal healthcare products as well. Brand and media
Speaker 1: VP Molly Goudson is here to tell us how they
Speaker 1: have been connecting with the community. Hi, welcome, thanks and
Speaker 1: thank you so much for doing this. Yeah, talk to
Speaker 1: me about Baby List and what you guys are doing
Speaker 1: to help the community.
Speaker 13: Yeah.
Speaker 16: So we opened our showroom in Beverly Hill in twenty
Speaker 16: twenty three, so we've really felt like a part of
Speaker 16: the LA community since then. And when these fires started
Speaker 16: a couple of weeks ago, we knew we wanted to
Speaker 16: do something, and we just saw this opportunity to take
Speaker 16: this giant space that we have in Beverly Hills and
Speaker 16: transform it into a donation center so that families that
Speaker 16: we know are impacted that have lost everything can come
Speaker 16: and get some of those essentials.
Speaker 1: That they lost.
Speaker 16: So we worked with over one hundred brand partners to
Speaker 16: donate items. We had two days of donations, one on
Speaker 16: the twenty first one on the twenty eighth, in which
Speaker 16: families could come and pick up things that they need
Speaker 16: like strollers and high chairs and car seats, as well
Speaker 16: as you know, things like breast pumps and baby clothes
Speaker 16: and breastfeeding pillows and all of this stuff that you know,
Speaker 16: it is not just a nice to have, it really
Speaker 16: is a must have, especially when.
Speaker 1: You're expecting or have a new baby. How does it work? People?
Speaker 1: Do you need an appointment? Do you just you need
Speaker 1: an appointment to be able to know we.
Speaker 16: Have RSVPs, But but people can also, you know, come
Speaker 16: in if they have an RSVP'd. We understand that there's
Speaker 16: a lot going on these days on social media and
Speaker 16: messages everywhere, so we just want to support folks who
Speaker 16: need it who could come in, but most people have
Speaker 16: r s VP and just let us know which day
Speaker 16: they're coming. Just helps us know be ready for the
Speaker 16: flow of folks. And then when you come, you know,
Speaker 16: we'll chat with you and hear a little bit about
Speaker 16: what your need are, what age of the baby is
Speaker 16: a or babies, and we'll sort of direct you through
Speaker 16: the experience so that you know, we make it easy.
Speaker 1: We don't want to be overwhelming.
Speaker 16: We know this whole thing is incredibly overwhelming, and our
Speaker 16: goal is really just to make it as easy as possible,
Speaker 16: and like work with brands that people already know and
Speaker 16: love so they can actually replace some of the things
Speaker 16: that they, you know, have had in their life in
Speaker 16: the past.
Speaker 1: How is it dealing with the distributors, You know, you're
Speaker 1: making those uncomfortable with wonderful phone calls, you know, to
Speaker 1: this company saying.
Speaker 6: People need this.
Speaker 1: Know, you know, these items a lot of them. They're
Speaker 1: not cheap, you know, but they're much needed. But how
Speaker 1: do you navigate that phone call with a distribute distributor
Speaker 1: and say, listen, it's your time to step up.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 16: Well, luckily baby List has amazing partner relationships with all
Speaker 16: of these brands. I mean, as a universal registry, we
Speaker 16: work with every baby brand under the sun, so we
Speaker 16: have existing relationships and so really it was just about
Speaker 16: calling them up and saying, hey, is this something you
Speaker 16: want to participate in? And you know that's everyone from
Speaker 16: Bugaboo and Cybex and Stoka and Bobby and Buyhart. Just
Speaker 16: like every the brands came out and they really wanted
Speaker 16: to show up. And it's been just incredible to see.
Speaker 16: I mean, it was way more than we ever thought.
Speaker 16: I mean, right now our showroom is just like floor
Speaker 16: to ceiling packed with these items and we just love
Speaker 16: being able to get them back into people's lives.
Speaker 1: That's fantastic and people want to help you and help
Speaker 1: you guys like what are the steps? You know, we
Speaker 1: have all these listeners that they're listening to this whole
Speaker 1: special because they want to be able to help, you know,
Speaker 1: not only from Los Angeles, from everywhere, Like, what is
Speaker 1: a good way to support what you guys are.
Speaker 16: Doing well, First and foremost, if you have a family
Speaker 16: in your life that has been affected, make sure they
Speaker 16: know about it. I think you know, it's been really
Speaker 16: important for us to make sure that folks hear about
Speaker 16: it and know what we're doing, so that everyone who
Speaker 16: needs it can get something that they need from us.
Speaker 16: And then we've had an amazing outpouring of volunteers which
Speaker 16: has been incredible, and so we've had everything from influencing
Speaker 16: celebrities just to brand partners and of course our own
Speaker 16: team working to do this.
Speaker 3: And then after after we're.
Speaker 16: Done with these two big donation days, you know, we
Speaker 16: know we will have some access product and that we're
Speaker 16: going to work and get distributed to other organizations that
Speaker 16: are on the ground and passing it altered it in
Speaker 16: the Palisades to make sure that everything gets in the
Speaker 16: hands of folks who've been affected.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. Well, we appreciate it immensely. Thank you so much, Baby, Listen,
Speaker 1: you and everybody that is helping this is incredible. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much. The company Free People has opened up
Speaker 1: free Shop in Santa Monica, California, where people can come
Speaker 1: and get everything from close to utter products to food
Speaker 1: to replace our lost items. This company has stepped up
Speaker 1: in a huge way and I am so excited to
Speaker 1: find out more. Corney Wise, Managing director of Brand Marketing
Speaker 1: for FP Movement, Hi, how are you?
Speaker 3: Thank you for having me now, thank.
Speaker 1: You for being here. We have appreciate it, So talk
Speaker 1: to me for people. It's what are you guys doing
Speaker 1: to help with the victims of the alifiers. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been following on Instagram and it's pretty remarkable what
Speaker 1: you guys are doing. But I want you to talk
Speaker 1: to our listeners.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
Speaker 17: So first off, our office is where I am in
Speaker 17: currently are on Olympic and EUCLID. So immediately on Tuesday,
Speaker 17: it was at the office actually when the Palsy It's
Speaker 17: fire broke out, so I could see the smoke kind
Speaker 17: of you know, this is crazy, what's going on, And
Speaker 17: then of course the devastation throughout the day, and then
Speaker 17: that same day the Eaton fire broke out and Altadena
Speaker 17: and Pasadena, so just kind of so apparent we're in
Speaker 17: the headquarters here in Los Angeles, and then our headquarters
Speaker 17: are also our main headquarters are in Philadelphia.
Speaker 3: So talking to the executive.
Speaker 17: Team there, originally my team on the ground, we started
Speaker 17: putting together a list of people affected in our personal circle.
Speaker 17: And as the list grew, you know, up to eighty
Speaker 17: between makeup artists, photographers, fitness instructors, influencers. Were like, wow,
Speaker 17: this is crazy, just eighty that my team just has
Speaker 17: personal relationships with. I shared that with the executive team
Speaker 17: in Philadelphia and they said, you know what, Because of
Speaker 17: course we were a little rattled on the ground, They're like,
Speaker 17: you know what, We're going to step in support you
Speaker 17: guys on the ground. That's actually send units from our
Speaker 17: distribution center.
Speaker 3: We have up to ten.
Speaker 17: Thousand units of clothing, ten thousand units of beauty and
Speaker 17: wellness supplies.
Speaker 3: Let's send those.
Speaker 17: So this was maybe kind of the Friday, I think
Speaker 17: January ninth or so, let's send those units next week
Speaker 17: and see what we can do. So over Martin Luther
Speaker 17: King weekend, we decided to put on the free shop.
Speaker 17: So our name is free People. So we're like, okay,
Speaker 17: let's actually be so clear about what this is this
Speaker 17: is a free shop. We also wanted a shopping experience,
Speaker 17: so of course these are people that lost their homes,
Speaker 17: lost all their possessions. We didn't want it to seem
Speaker 17: just like a clothing drive. We really wanted it to
Speaker 17: be true to free people and FP movement, the shopping experience,
Speaker 17: that these are our customers, so many of them has
Speaker 17: had it in the store. So we turned our offices
Speaker 17: our photo studio into just that, so into a store
Speaker 17: about thirty racks, organized by style, organized by size, and
Speaker 17: on the first day, the Saturday of the holiday weekend,
Speaker 17: we were out of product, ten thousand clothing units, ten
Speaker 17: thousand beauty and wellness units in the first four hours,
Speaker 17: and we just thought this is crazy. In fairness, we
Speaker 17: strategically decided to just have ID but not to have
Speaker 17: appointment slots just because we didn't. We're learning just like
Speaker 17: everyone else, right, It was knew it was so so
Speaker 17: raw toed people. We activated immediately the first week that
Speaker 17: this was happening, So in that point in time, just
Speaker 17: doing the best we could. I was like, oh, it
Speaker 17: might feel like a lot for people to go on
Speaker 17: their phones, fill out a slot, put in their address,
Speaker 17: and all of that so week in one that we
Speaker 17: did this, we thought, no, let's just have them come
Speaker 17: and see and the response was just so overwhelming. There
Speaker 17: were clearly so many people in need. We said, okay,
Speaker 17: let's do this weekend two. But to have this best
Speaker 17: service was just this past weekend, but to have this
Speaker 17: best serve the community, we actually had an intake form
Speaker 17: and we decided to have thirty people per half hour,
Speaker 17: so more individual kind of shopping appointments. We did then
Speaker 17: bring in stylists from our store teams that we're able
Speaker 17: to really help people put together their outfit?
Speaker 3: What are the foundations? Where do you start?
Speaker 17: And the response was just so overwhelming because we had
Speaker 17: people this past weekend, but like they're getting back into life.
Speaker 3: I have a birthday.
Speaker 17: So if you think about it, kind of compartmentalizing, that's
Speaker 17: what we do as humans to help us get over
Speaker 17: at trauma. So it's this awful thing's happening in my life.
Speaker 17: I'm dealing with insurance, where to live, where to send
Speaker 17: my children to school, but I also want to experience joy.
Speaker 17: I don't want to turn down that invitation. Now, going
Speaker 17: on week three of a friend's birthday, I want to
Speaker 17: go to that dinner. So what's something that's not just
Speaker 17: my sweats or the one thing that I ran out
Speaker 17: of the house, And what can I pull together as
Speaker 17: an actual outfit?
Speaker 3: So we ended up having nine hundred appointments.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. I'm going to tell you something. This is interesting.
Speaker 1: So we had another special with Governor Knewsom and there
Speaker 1: was a woman who came on to talk about her
Speaker 1: concerns you know, that she had, and that interview she
Speaker 1: mentioned how the Free Shop helped her feel more confident
Speaker 1: by giving her the outfit she used on zoom to
Speaker 1: talk to the governor that day. Wow, and I believe
Speaker 1: that's how iHeart and our producers they here besides Instagram,
Speaker 1: you know, and the big movement that you guys are doing.
Speaker 1: They clocked her when she said it, you know, because
Speaker 1: they did that special with the governor and she mentioned
Speaker 1: you guys and that's when they went, oh, that's interesting,
Speaker 1: free people, free shop, what are they doing? And here
Speaker 1: we are. So it was pretty powerful, you know, for
Speaker 1: that woman talking to somebody in a position of what
Speaker 1: a political figure to it was.
Speaker 3: This is how.
Speaker 1: Important there was for her at that moment in time
Speaker 1: that she felt compelled to tell this human being. I
Speaker 1: feel confident because I had this company do this for me.
Speaker 3: I'm so happy that.
Speaker 17: The ultimate and that's really confidence what we what we
Speaker 17: serve as a as a clothing and active wear brand,
Speaker 17: that's really what we to deliver. So that's the ultimate
Speaker 17: and that's the ultimate empowerment that I feel about in
Speaker 17: my position in my job. I'm like, Wow, we really
Speaker 17: actually are achieving the mission that you too very.
Speaker 1: Much, very very much, and how can people help you?
Speaker 6: Know?
Speaker 1: How can people help you guys? Amplify?
Speaker 7: Is there?
Speaker 1: So you're going to do another one of these? Like
Speaker 1: what's coming for you guys?
Speaker 9: Yeah?
Speaker 17: So I think after two weekends in a row, you know,
Speaker 17: we feel like we've made the current impact when people
Speaker 17: are still in temporary housing, still figuring that out in
Speaker 17: the future when the communities are when people are back
Speaker 17: in their homes and kind of rebuild and people can
Speaker 17: acquire more belongings. It's something that we would definitely love
Speaker 17: to do again. So definitely to be determined date that
Speaker 17: could be in a year from.
Speaker 3: Now, whenever that might be.
Speaker 17: For the media, I think just everyone behind be kind
Speaker 17: to strangers, themselves, neighbors, and to our first responders and firefighters.
Speaker 17: We also donated to the California Fire Foundation, so if
Speaker 17: anyone's looking to make a monetary donation, there's so many
Speaker 17: wonderful organizations. I think any of our local firehouses, LA
Speaker 17: Fire Foundation. I know Baby to Baby does a lot
Speaker 17: in helping young mothers, young families. We support Girls Inc
Speaker 17: As an ongoing foundation with FP Movements, I think.
Speaker 3: Any of those organizations.
Speaker 17: And then as soon as we have another Jove, everyone
Speaker 17: can look out on our Instagram and just to share
Speaker 17: that with family, with friends, all of that so will
Speaker 17: definitely keep you everyone breast of the future. We do
Speaker 17: have some units left. I believe your team is going
Speaker 17: to help me connect with the Palisads High School. Perfect Yes,
Speaker 17: so we love that, and then we're going to connect
Speaker 17: to it with Altadina Girls too, because everybody loves free people,
Speaker 17: everyone from teenagers two grandmothers.
Speaker 1: I am such a huge friend. You have no idea.
Speaker 1: I love the brand and it makes me so happy
Speaker 1: to know that I actually show up at a place
Speaker 1: that makes a difference. And do you guys take the
Speaker 1: time to actually give back to the community. So I'm
Speaker 1: going to keep I'm going to show you even more
Speaker 1: because I know you guys are doing things for the
Speaker 1: purpose and that means a lot.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Speaker 17: And every day at FP Movement, one percent of your
Speaker 17: purchases every day go to Girls Inc. So that's a
Speaker 17: national foundation. And at Free People we also have a
Speaker 17: partnership with the National Park Service, So if you don't
Speaker 17: take a bag in the store, we have recycle bags.
Speaker 17: But if you don't take a bag, ten cents does
Speaker 17: go to the National Park Foundations, so.
Speaker 1: To give them, Phomena, Well, thank you so much.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: Of course, So there you have, guys. I hope that
Speaker 1: this was much help. You know, those of you that
Speaker 1: know me, they we have talked about this on our podcast,
Speaker 1: he said.
Speaker 6: Ayadiho.
Speaker 1: With my husband Eric Winter, we have a final thought
Speaker 1: every single night before we go to bed, and we
Speaker 1: talk to each other about things that are important. My
Speaker 1: final thought after listening to all these organizations and all
Speaker 1: these wonderful people helping building community and just doing incredible work,
Speaker 1: I'm inspired. I'm inspired. There's so much that we can
Speaker 1: do from your house, you know, just go to our website, donate,
Speaker 1: just go to one of these organizations and prepare some meals.
Speaker 1: Just there's so much that you can do. You don't
Speaker 1: have to be in a late to be able to
Speaker 1: do it. And if you physically hear, there's nothing more
Speaker 1: beautiful than helping somebody, especially in a time of need.
Speaker 1: And I'm going to be doing that. I'm gonna encourage
Speaker 1: and teach my kids of the importance of doing this.
Speaker 1: What happened to Los Angeles, to our beautiful community has
Speaker 1: been devastating and this is gonna it's gonna take years
Speaker 1: to rebuild, So any any help is so welcome and
Speaker 1: so needed. So yeah, thank you for listening. We appreciate you.
Speaker 1: God blessing me.