Clothes, Food & Supplies for Altadena Fire Victims

DONATIONS NEEDED TO HELP BRING CLOTHING & FOOD TO SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FIRE VICTIMS: Hello everyone, my name is Pastor Carthel Towns. I’m the Founder and Pastor of Ekklesia Meta Church as well as the Founder and Executive Director of The Community Closet (a local non-profit based in the City of Santa Clarita, CA). We provide free clothing, shoes, and emergency supplies to those in need. And we’re reaching out for help so we can help our neighbors impacted by the wildfires.

We currently operate the Community Closet out of a retail store in Santa Clarita, CA (18333 Dolan Way, Unit 106, Santa Clarita, CA 91387). It’s staffed by volunteers and anyone in the community (who’s unable to afford decent clothing) can come shop in the store absolutely free of charge!!! Basically, everything thing in the store is free to those in “need”. It’s similar to The Goodwill, except all the items in the store are free for those in the community…that’s why it’s called the “community” closet.

Well, on Jan 12, 2025 (the first Sunday are the fires started) we decided to pack up everything in the store, rent a U-Haul (along with the church van) and take the store to the people of Altadena (Eaton Fire..the closet to where we are in Santa Clarita) that had suffered the most devastation by this time. We call it a “Pop-Up”. We were on the corner of Fair Oaks & Washington (for both Pop-Ups).

We were OVERWHELMED with donations!!!

We went out to GIVE to the people and to our surprise, we had to rent another 15-foot U-Haul truck to bring all the donations back to The Community Closet. It was filled with clothes, shoes, food, diapers, school supplies, bedding, towels, hygiene supplies, pet food, and much more.

The word quickly spread about what we had done and we were asked to come out again! So, with limited resources, we went out a second time (Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025) and blessed the community once again, giving out over 600 garments, 80 pairs of shoes, and 98 bags of non-perishable food items and pet supplies..

While overwhelmed, we loved it!!!!

The challenge we're facing now is sorting, organizing, and transporting the more than 500 bags of donations we received from the Altadena residents and supporters (the very folks we came out to help). It has forced us to shut down The Community Closet, which is currently being used as a storage facility/warehouse. We need to get back out there to serve the people and could really us our help.

And at this very moment another fire JUST BROKE OUT (The Hughes Fire) just broke out here in Santa Clarita..minutes from our home and office). We’re currently under an evacuation warning. Over 20,000 are under mandatory evacuation and 23,000 are under an evacuation warning (we’re in that group). Local highs schools are sheltering residents and they could really use our help bringing them food, blankets and other emergency supplies. We’re hoping the fire lines hold and that the evacuations orders are lifted by morning.

All donated funds will be used for:

[1] BOXES: We need lots of boxes to store and transport the donations (clothes, food, shoes, etc.). We've searched the internet and the ones that work best are the medium sized Home Depot boxes. They are the right size and are most economical @ only $1.57/box. A box of 150 is about $240. So, the total funds needed for the boxes are around $880.00 (total). Link to boxes on Home Depot’s site: https://www.homedepot.com/p/The-Home-Depot-21-in-L-x-15-in-W-x-16-in-D-Medium-Moving-Box-with-Handles-150-Pack-MEDBOX150/316804032

[2] STORAGE/PROCESSING FACILITY:

Currently all the donations (food, clothes, shoes, diapers, bedding, hygiene products, etc.) are basically "thrown" into the Community Closet in Santa Clarita. We need to get those donations out of the trash bags, into boxes ready for travel to the Pop-Up sites. Donations would be used to cover the cost of the temporary storage facility/warehouse. We will also use it at a central processing station for all donations.. Average price is $2,500 - $3,500 per month for about 1,500 – 2,500 SF, which should me more than enough. Below is a link with few local options. The one on Centre Pointe (21176 Centre Pointe Parkway, Bldg3) is our top pick based on price, location and access. However, there are some smaller units on Ruether that will work as well. Here’s’ the link: https://www.loopnet.com/search/listings/warehouses/santa-clarita-ca/for-lease/

[3] BOX TRUCK: Presently we are using the church cargo van and renting a 15-foot U-Haul truck to get everything to and from the Pop-Up sites. Since we have to return the truck in a few days, we are constantly loading and unloading the truck after every Pop-Up. If we could lease the truck long term or simply buy a dependable use truck that would make our job so much easier. We could keep everything in the truck and be ready to roll-out to the sites with minimal effort. Presently, U-Haul is offering us a discount because they know we are helping the fire victims. But the constant loading and unloading is taking its toll on our volunteers. We’re looking for something like the U-Haul 15-foot rental trucks. Doesn’t have to be all-fancy, but it does have to be dependable. We don’t wanna break-down on the way to help our neighbors. We’re looking for something like what you’d rent from U-Haul that does NOT require a professional trucker’s license. We think anything from $8,000 - $15,000 would work perfectly for our needs. Here’s a link to some that seem to fit: https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/112453148766586/box-trucks/?maxPrice=15000&exact=false

While we may have a rather specific set of requests, anything we're blessed with would be helpful and greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Dr. Towns

www.communityclosetcdc.org