Can you help?
Those 3 words are always welcome in my inbox. And I especially love it when I can reply “yes”! Such was the case when our Executive Director sent me an email about a woman who needed items to set up her new apartment. Because she had been living in a shelter, the result of escaping domestic violence, she had nothing. She needed everything to start her new life; everything to furnish a new home.
Can you remember a time when you got a new home? Remember the excitement of setting up your space the way you wanted to, because it was all yours? This is what it was like for Carmela.* She was so excited and motivated, and above all, grateful, that there was someone to help. I immediately contacted her to get a list of her needs – and her “wants.” I then contacted one of our community partners, the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, to set her up with some basic household goods – kitchen items, linens, etc.
They took her list and prepared a few bins of essentials that I delivered to her. Then I contacted a family who was clearing out their parents’ house – the elderly parents has passed, and the adult daughters were going to sell the house, but needed to get rid of the furniture. With the daughters’ permission, I invited Carmela to the house and she was able to choose which furniture items she wanted to furnish her own hew home.
I had the use of a box truck from a local realtor, and met Carmela at the house to load her items. We filled the entire 15-foot box truck! It was wonderful to let Carmela “shop” for her own items, instead of choosing things for her and just dropping them off. Within a week, Carmela had set up her new home and her new life, thanks to connections we have made in the community. Shortly thereafter, Carmela sent us this note of thanks:
“I want to thank you for helping me in my time of need. I reached out to you about having nothing to go into my first apartment here in Sacramento, when I contacted you I was sleeping on the floor with nothing in an empty apartment. When you contact me and asked me to text you everything I needed for my apartment. You provided everything for every room in my apartment including dishes towels sheets and pillows as well as furniture I could’ve never done all of that without your help. Your organization is awesome!! I appreciate everything that you and the kindness campaign have given me. Without your help I don’t know what I would’ve done, you were there for me and I thank you so very much for being a blessing in my life. If there’s anything I can do or help your organization please let me know. Again thank you and may God bless you”
I sent an abbreviated version of this note to the daughters of the elderly parents whose home we cleared out. The daughters responded that my email “made their day” and that their mom would have been very happy to know that their items helped another woman in need.
One of the best things about SKC is the community connections we have and the networks we’ve developed, which allow us to fulfill needs quickly as they arise. The joy expressed in the above emails is why I love to be able to say “yes” when asked. I hope you will consider saying “yes” too!
-Gwynnae Byrd
Kelli
Meet Kelli. She got into a car accident with insufficient insurance and lost everything in one day. She, her husband and 14 year old son spent the next three years living in tents or a car. Somehow, her son still managed to thrive in school. He is pretty amazing. Sacramento Kindness Campaign helped Kelli to make a connection with a great job. Once the connection was made, Kelli, wearing interview clothes supplied by Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services, was ready. She interviewed for the position and got the job! Now, she is empowered. She is challenged and made stronger by her job every day. Everyday, she is earning wages, benefits and paid time off. She is doing this on her own. Watching individuals and families navigate off the path of welfare and social assistance and onto the path of independence is remarkable. Observing formerly disconnected people make friendships in the community is beautiful. This is the heartbeat of Sacramento Kindness Campaign. It is who we are. Much love to you, Kelli! Sacramento Kindness Campaign thinks you are pretty special and is so happy that you are part of us and we are part of you. Life is good.
Habiba
Tonight, I am in labor and delivery with Habiba. I do not speak Farsi. She does not speak English. But it is ok. We are friends. We teach each other a few words at each visit. And in the past few months, we have grown very close. At parting, she puts her hand on my heart and says, “Dusta durum.” I love you. I put my hand on her heart, “Dusta durum, Habiba.” I love her too. Tonight we have been walking laps around labor and delivery to help the baby progress. On the first pass, we looked at all of the pictures on the wall. We studied the baby footprints on construction paper positioned like flower petals. We greeted all of the nurses. Each time we passed her room, I gestured at the door and again to the hallway to make sure she wanted to keep walking. After a few laps, we were done looking at the art. We’d already greeted the nurses a few times. So we started teaching each other to count in our language. We can now count to 20! We are both trying to get some rest now so that when it is time we will be ready. I know that Habiba misses her family so much, especially now. Her mother-in -law was with her for the births of all of her previous children. But her mother-in-law is not able to be here this time. I would never try to take the place of her family. She already has a beautiful family. But I am her friend. She is not alone. And I know that going through this together will give us a special bond for life. I am grateful.
The Pennington Family
November 8th started like any other day: I woke up at 6:00 am, signed onto my work laptop to make sure I didn’t have any urgent issues that needed to be addressed, and to put myself on “away” on our instant messaging system. There was an 8:00 am meeting scheduled at my son Joe’s school for an update to his IEP and behavior plan. Joe and I left the house a little late, starting down Skyway at 7:45 am. I noticed there was a backup on Skyway and opted to take a well-known shortcut. I ususally avoid the Dogtown Road short-cut at all costs, because it's a little scary, but given Skyway is one lane up and one lane down,and Dogtown bypasses about 3 miles of it, I figured this was my best option. When I got to the bottom end of Dogtown Road at the North end of the Magalia Dam, the traffic was still backed up. I looked to the West and could see Sawmill Peak and behind it was a huge plume of smoke. Walt had told me about a fire in Pulga around 6:30 am and I assumed that was the smoke I saw. I sent Walt a text message letting him know. As I headed down to Joe's school in Paradise, I did note higher than usual traffic. Since I was not on my normal time schedule, I thought maybe that was the culprit. Once we got to the school, I could tell that the smoke in the sky was thickening and it was getting eerie. I told Joe not to go to class, to hang out by the car and not to go anywhere. I gave him my spare key and wrote him a note saying he had my permission to miss school that day.
Although my 42 years of living on “The Ridge” gave me some insight into what may have been happening, I didn’t know how fast. When I exited the car, I saw the look on the Assistant Principal’s face and turned around told Joe to load up to go home. There was controlled panic at the school, with the kids none-the-wiser, but as a Mom, I know that face. Joe and I left Paradise Intermediate School at 8:06 and traveled home. It took us 29 minutes according to my Google timeline. On my drive home, Walt had sent me a few text messages saying there was a fire on Apple View Lane, and that he felt and heard a huge explosion. My reply was “no school today”. He told me there were now fires on Pentz road, and they were issuing evacuation orders for Pentz Road all the way up to Ponderosa School. I told Walt he needed to gas up - when I drove past the gas stations on the way up, the lines were already long. I still really didn’t understand the magnitude of the fire yet. Joe and I returned home around 8:35 – I advised my boss that we had a big fire in the area and that we were probably going to be under precautionary evacuation orders. Around 9:30, I received a mandatory evacuation alert. Our neighbors told us that there was gridlock on Skyway in both directions. It would be useless to try to get out. Walt hooked up our travel trailer and was ready for the escape. After that, we lost power, internet and cell service. We gathered our pets in their carriers – it took us what seemed like 45 minutes to get our youngest cat. Our animals knew something was going on, much better than we did. I drove a mile out to Skyway to see what the traffic was doing and it seemed to be moving ok - maybe 10 miles an hour or so. I advised Walt and we decided to go for it. He loaded chain saws in the back of his truck in the event we needed to clear anything on our way out.
I wanted to go the established route, up Skyway to Butte Meadows and down highway 32. Walt wanted to go up Skyway to Powellton Road, to Garland, and across to highway 32. Walt’s choice was a dirt road and I was scared we wouldn’t make it out. With Walt’s countless years of Firefighting both volunteer and paid, I knew I needed to trust his judgement. I looked him in the eye and told him ok, putting my and our kids’ lives in his hands, and off we went. We left our house around 11:00 am, Walt and Joe in the truck and trailer and Kasie and I in the 4Runner. Kasie was focused on her kitten. We drove over washboards, hairpin turns, steep inclines and very narrow passages. We were not alone – if you live in the area, you know your backroads, and luckily Walt knew his backroads. We drove over some pretty big potholes and the trailer shook so bad, it lost a door. I saw it fly off but didn’t know what it was or that it was ours until we stopped. There were breaks in the trees where we could see to the southeast and could tell the fire was raging. The smoke plume was miles long and it was dark. We got to Highway 32 and were just beginning to feel safe, but there were spot fires on highway 32 also. The influx of 50,000 people dropping into Chico was more than that little town could handle. We spent well over 2 hours waiting to go from just below Forrest Ranch to Bruce Road on highway 32 – a mere 15 miles. Once we got to safety, we traveled out to Corning where our oldest son Bradley lives. We set up our trailer and hunkered down for the night. We spent a few days at our son’s house, but decided we needed to be closer to people who were getting information, and we needed to be closer to resources. We traveled to the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church in North Chico. It was not a Red Cross shelter, it was a shelter run by loving people wanting to make others feel comfortable. They had brought in portable showers, portable bathrooms and for several meals there were food trucks that were donating their time and product to feed the group of refugees. There were upwards of 250 people staying at the church. We received word on the 11th that our house was gone. We had been worried for 3 days, but had figured as much as a majority of Paradise had been destroyed, and at the rate the fire was spreading, it was just a matter of time. We were okay, it was just good to have confirmation. The next day, we got a conflicting report that our house was standing. The back and forth was horrible. Not knowing if you need to mentally move on or not is heartbreaking and confusing. It was remarkably cold at night. The heater in our trailer didn't work. We did have a ‘heater buddy’ and it used the little propane bottles. The nice thing was that we had a form of heat - the downside to that was that it only lasted about 3 hours. We did feel fortunate to have a trailer, as many didn’t. Since Walt is immunosuppressed, it was vital that he stay away from the masses. On the second day at the shelter, Kasie came down with the norovirus. She was placed in isolation in a special room and let that run its course. There were people being taken out via ambulance daily, sometimes two people a day. I decided to call to find a hotel that would accommodate the family and pets. The closest hotel was in Stockton but it was a 2 bedroom and Residence Inn always takes pets. A few days later on November 15th, FEMA came to the church and set up for intake. I had already registered by calling but wanted to make sure they didn’t need anything else from me. They were calling people alphabetically. Having the last name of Pennington, we were at the end. Our reservation in Stockton began on the 16th, so at the end of the day on the 16th we headed to Stockton.
We had never taken our trailer very far before so this was going to be an adventure of its own. For the next several days, my memory is just a blur. The company I work for covered my PTO for 4 weeks. They also had counselors onsite, unfortunately, my family and I were 130 miles away. Because the kids were still in school, it was necessary for me to travel back and forth every few days. Not for their school but for the fellowship and some sense of normalcy. We spent 4 weeks in Stockton. Several of those weeks we spent our evenings either silent or crying. Just not knowing what was happening next was too overwhelming. The mandatory evacuation was lifted and we were allowed to return as long as we understood the risks, no power, no internet, no water, no sheriff or fire department services. There was only one approved way into our town, that was back up over highway 32 through Butte Meadows, the same road that bottlenecked on evacuation, except this time, it was snowy. We had the first Thanksgiving dinner in 32 years away from home, and I didn’t cook. We shared Thanksgiving with my sister in Chico. It was similar, but just not the same. I feared the same would happen for Christmas. The second week of December, we found a Residence Inn with a 2 bedroom suite in South Natomas. We moved from Stockton and were able to cut off 45 minutes of travel to Chico and back. By the second week of December, Kasie had been notified that she had enough credits to graduate high school. It wasn’t a huge surprise but a finale that she was not prepared for. Her last day of school was November 7th and she didn’t get the gratitude of walking through the halls knowing she was just a few short weeks away from walking out of high school forever. There’s a satisfaction about knowing you never have to come back to school but she didn’t get to experience that. Joe on the other hand was forced to eLearning. Being one who doesn’t care for school and is very social, this was very difficult for him. The school district wanted to keep them engaged but not too stressed about school. They didn’t expect a lot of work and they weren’t prepared to manage a lot of work either but they did their best to keep school social gatherings so that the kids could remain in touch with each other. Around the 15th of December, we moved into the Residence Inn in Natomas. I was concerned about Christmas. I tried my best to make it as normal as I could. We didn’t have anything to make it feel like Christmas. I reached out to The Sacramento Kindness Campaign. I was offered gifts and decorations. I found the most compassion I had felt in a long time. The most poignant phrase I read was “I was keeping them for a friend, I just didn’t know yet”. Even now when I read that, I get emotional. By the 3rd week of December, Joe was on Christmas vacation. We brought his best friend from Magalia and he spent about 10 days with us. Joe and his friend rode bikes all over town. From bike park to skate park to BMX track and out on the streets. I met the field adjuster at my home in Magalia and based on his assessment, there was no damage. We were less than .1 mile from the active fire. The active fire that demolished 90% of Paradise and about 65% of Magalia. He did concede that the food in the refrigerator and the stand-up freezer was spoiled. He said he wasn’t qualified to say what type of damage there was to the soft textiles, but that he saw no smoke or heat damage.
I finally enrolled Joe in school here in Natomas. He enjoys school here, the demographics of the student body are completely opposite of the student body in Paradise. We’ve enjoyed our time here - we will always remember it and we are grateful for the friends we’ve made, but we are ready to return home, just as soon as it can be made safe enough to make that happen.