Help Maria & Mike Recover After Altadena Home Destroyed

Maria Brunner Ventura and Mike Brunner lost their charming early 1950’s Altadena home on Wednesday morning, January 8th in the Eaton fire. Within their home, they created an educational sanctuary for music and threatened native herbs. They are heartbroken and any amount you can contribute will be of great support. They will appreciate it immensely.

Maria and Mike married 17 years ago. Eleven years ago they moved to Altadena where they purchased their first home, now in ruins. Their diverse neighborhood became their beloved community filled with supportive and creative people. The sudden and unexpected loss of their home, workspace, and community has left them shattered and in a tough situation. Maria and Mike are wonderful and passionate community members, always eager to help others. As their longtime friend I am helping them with this effort.*

Money raised will help them to recover a sense of home, workspace, and replace belongings including their clothes and personal effects. Your contribution will help offer them stability to continue working and living with a sense of normalcy. They will need to keep paying their mortgage, property tax, and homeowners’ insurance while simultaneously affording a place to live as they re-establish their lives. They have insurance however, your contributions will support non-covered expenses. Maria and Mike are undecided if they will live in Altadena or another area as they are in shock and need to assess further.

Maria and Mike were fortunate to get out on time. They received NO evacuation warning but with the fire fast approaching they took about 30 minutes to collect a few essential belongings and get their dog Luna and cat Spooky in their car and they headed south to Maria’s mom in Orange County. They might have packed more but expected to return with their home intact. They are currently able to stay with Maria’s mom until they can afford to secure an apartment.

About Maria and Mike:

Maria left nonprofit museum work, and later corporate life in 2021 when she left Disney Store Headquarters to pursue new endeavors. Maria has had a long career as a photographer as well. She had long desired to build a career teaching people how to heal themselves. She studied alternative healing and became a Reiki Practitioner and an Ecstatic Dance/DJ Facilitator. She turned the landscaping of her home into a tranquil native garden with abundant white sage plants. This became Sage Spirit Farm in Altadena, focused on education, preservation, and providing seeds and bundles of white sage to the community free of charge. She transformed the cottage on her property into a workspace for hands-on healing. She invited the community to visit Sage Sprit Farm. White sage is considered a sacred grandmother plant considered a family member by local native tribes. She opened her home for healing sound baths and other ceremonies. Maria lost Sage Spirit Farm and her workspace, a bison drum, her own photos and hard drives, paintings, and personal and collected art when her home, cottage and gardens were destroyed.

Mike has been a music teacher for the Downey community for 30 years. He has owned his own business, California Guitar Academy in Downey for 15 years, during which he has taught thousands of students in the Academy he built on transparency, excellence in music education and with a passion for the communities in and surrounding Downey. He teaches acoustic and electric guitar, how to be a band member, and recording and songwriting to all ages. Mike lost more than $50,000 of his professional work equipment in the fire including a rare 1984 Jackson Randy Rhoads guitar. He lost recording equipment along with masters of his own original creative recordings—his lifetime body of work. He also lost his precious collectible LP’s and CD’s.

Thank you for your kind consideration and open heartedness.

Fundraisers:

*Sabrina Wurf—I am their longtime friend and am assisting them to get back on their feet. Although not easy for them to accept help they agreed to this GFM so they may focus on rebuilding their lives. I met Maria in 2003 when we both worked at the Autry Museum. I have served the Skirball Cultural Center for almost 21 years as Membership Manager. Maria commemorated my mom and golden retriever in professional photography sessions in my home in 2010 and 2011 when my mom and dog were in the last year of their lives. I remain forever grateful for those gifts she gave me. One of my mom’s photos, as well as one of me with our dog, were in Maria’s Face A Day project.