North Bay Recovery. The Long Road Home, Part 2
New Year’s Greetings friends!
It’s been over two months since wildfires raged through the North Bay, devastating homes and families. Since then, there have been many positive steps forward in rebuilding and supporting our neighbors. Of course, there’s still a lot of work ahead for the North Bay community.
Here at the Conscious Capitalism Bay Area chapter, we want you to know that we are still here for you. It is so important to us that our brothers and sisters up North have support from their entire community. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of ways that we can all support those affected by the Wine Country Fires – and all those impacted by the wildfires raging across California.
Updates: Organizations That Have Made a Difference
Many organizations were formed or refocused their efforts to support those who continue to be in need. We’ve highlighted some below, and plan to continue sharing more.
Sonoma County Rises: This organization and support group was created by concerned community Sonoma County members after the fires to collect information about the causes their fellow residents cared about, and provide resources. Anyone can go on the website and provide their thoughts regarding a variety of topics – from environmental issues to social justice. Each topic is also accompanied by extensive resources for locals.
Rebuilding Homes and Creating Safety for Sonoma Immigrants: Officials in Sonoma County, the region most devastated by the fires, have put together a Spanish-language community forum to address the concerns of the Latino community — the first of its kind in the county. Community leaders have stepped forward to assist non-English speakers and undocumented residents.
Napa and Sonoma County Fire Fighters: We all sincerely express our gratitude for the difficult and often thankless work that the Bay Area firefighters did during the time of the wildfires and the weeks after. These men and women are now down South helping to contain the fires in Ventura and Los Angeles. Our thanks goes out to them for their continuous work in service to our communities.
Beyond the Ashes. How Business Owners Can Assist in Rebuilding Sonoma County. Our very own Brandon Trammell works in Santa Rosa, and his daughter’s school burned in the fires. As a CCBA board member, he is bringing the business community together to work with two awesome coaches: Linda Basso and Kate Pintor to deal with the traumatic emotional aftermath of the fires.
What’s Next: How You Can Help
There is still a lot of work to be done to help rebuild neighborhoods in Northern California.
- Here are a few ways you can help this holiday season and beyond.
- Ways to support this Winter: This is a list of ways that Napa Valley residents, and all those in the Bay Area can share the love this Winter season. The ways to give back range from supporting a family in need, to donating coats and other Winter items. These ideas and donations don’t have to stop after the holidays. We’ll keep you posted on other events and organizations that you can give clothing and much-needed household items to.
- Give money: There are many GoFundMe donation pages that have been created, both in the wake of the Northern and Southern California fires this Fall. There are many families and organizations that still need financial support. Here is a link to the Northern California Fires Fundraiser, along with the Ventura Fire Fundraising as of this past week’s devastation. Our Conscious Capitalism chapter just hosted a holiday party and fundraiser. We raised $3000 for Undocufund at our annual holiday party and had a great time doing it!
Building Resilience by Being Prepared
No one knows what the future holds. We encourage everyone in our community to be prepared – now more than ever – for large scale emergencies. Volunteer to work with the Red Cross. Learn how to be part of a Community Emergency Response Team. And for each and every one of you, devote some time to preparing for evacuation, whether from a wildfire, earthquake, or unexpected catastrophic event.
Here is an excellent document on what you need to have ready to go at a moment’s notice. It was prepared, designed and written by Judy Baker, founder of BrandVines, a North Bay marketing consultancy.
We know that the road to recovery will be long and difficult. Just remember that we are all in this together. If you have any other resources, ideas, stories, or services to offer, please don’t hesitate to share them with us by contacting us at .
Researched and written by Katina Mountanos and Leslie Lawton.
Happy Holidays from all of us at CCBA