Fire Relief for Mike and Gloria Schaffer

Like so many others in our Sunset Mesa community, my parents Gloria and Mike Schaffer lost their house of more than 40 years in the Palisades fire earlier this week. This was the home I was born and raised in, and my parents' entire world. The impact of the loss is immeasurable.

As the magnitude of this disaster and the accompanying grief begins to settle in, the uncertain reality of what comes next is becoming apparent. They are safe and staying in a friend's house in the desert. But with all of their belongings destroyed and no house to return to, any support that you can give is deeply appreciated. These donations will go towards short-term solutions like clothing, essentials and temporary housing.

Many of you have reached out asking how you can help them, so Dan and I wanted to provide one option through which to do so.

Thank you for your continued love and support through this unimaginably difficult time. We will get through this together.

With love and gratitude,

Alicia & Dan

UPDATE 1/16

Dear friends,

We cannot ever fully repay your selfless concern and response to our catastrophic situation. We are simply amazed and feel blessed.

We are humbled by your generous financial contributions, which have made a huge difference to our ongoing recovery from day one. We are still struggling to comprehend the full extent of our loss, but feel stronger each day knowing that we have each of you to accompany us on our journey.

Since our last update, we met with our hosts and are relieved to know that we have a temporary home for the foreseeable future thanks to their incredible generosity. They extended their home to us without hesitation at our darkest, loneliest hour of need and now we feel a sense of stability amidst the chaos.

We are continuing to purchase essentials and navigate the complicated bureaucracy of home insurance and FEMA.

We are keeping our faith in God strong.

With immense love and gratitude,

Mike and Gloria

UPDATE 1/14

The outpouring of love and support over the last few days has been nothing short of inspiring. Thank you to those who have contributed both financially and emotionally through phone calls, texts and emails. We are so incredibly blessed to have so many loved ones looking out for Mike and Gloria during this difficult time.

Thanks to your immense generosity, yesterday we took the first steps towards recovery. They lost everything in the fire and were finally able to purchase some essentials like toiletries, warm clothing, groceries and transferred prescriptions to a new pharmacy. We have also started the arduous process of changing our old address to a temporary one and disconnecting services from Wakecrest Drive, something we never thought we would have to do.

This process will be long but has already been made more bearable knowing we have a strong community lighting our path.