Help Our Neighbors Rebuild After The Mountain Fire

We are raising money to help our dear neighbors restart and rebuild their lives after losing their homes and everything they had to the Mountain Fire. Four homes on our street burned to the ground, and the homes next door suffered terrible smoke damage. The money raised here will be split evenly among the Garrido Drive fire victims who could really use some help getting their lives back on track and the neighbors who need help with costly smoke remediation. The families who need to rebuild are facing a multi-year process with insurance to rebuild and may not receive the full amount they need to repurchase home items, clothes and furniture, and smoke remediation can add up to thousands of dollars and is often not covered fully by insurance.

Here's a bit more about our neighbors who lost their homes. Al and Phyllis Nordquist have lived on our street for 55 years and are the original owners of their home. They raised their family there with love and faith and have lost everything. They’re in their late 80’s, but they are determined to rebuild their family house and call Garrido Drive home once again.

Adam and Maddie Zack and their young daughter moved to Garrido Drive three years ago. Adam operates a tugboat, and Maddie grew flowers for her business from the backyard of their house, so losing their home is also losing business and income to their family. Their daughter is just starting school, and she loves Harry Potter and Hello Kitty.

Dick & Sherie Galante have lived in their home, formerly owned by Dick’s parents, since the 1990’s. Dick just returned home from the hospital one month ago from reconstructive gastrointestinal surgery. Their home was their own art gallery with three generations of antiques collected by their families, and more than 300 sculptures made by Sherie’s father, Lou Rankin, a sculptor who made art for the White House and global art events. Those sculptures and memories were all destroyed, but the Galante’s say there is nowhere else they could imagine calling home and are determined to rebuild.

We live across the street from Al & Phyllis and have lived next door to all these families for almost a decade. We launched this fundraiser to help our friends and neighbors start the journey to normalcy because our home was spared. Two thirds of the money from the fundraiser will be given to the families who lost their homes on our street, and the remaining third will be given to any neighbors with smoke or flame damage to their homes that need help reaching their insurance deductible. We plan to run the fundraiser for one month, and dispense checks to our neighbors after 2 weeks and then again at the end of the month!