Help the Carroll-Chandlers Rebuild After Eaton Fire Disaster

I am Sonia Morin, a neighbor and friend of Adam, Mona, Max, Violet, and Renton. Our kids grew up together, and were in the same playgroup together from birth. They are like family to our family.

They live(d) one block from our home, and their entire block was lost to the Eaton Fire in Altadena. The cover photo is their annual New Year’s card, sent a week before this tragedy consumed their family home.

From the Altadena Carroll-Chandlers...

Hi everyone. Just throwing this together to make things a little less piecemeal.

First of all, we got out safely. We will be dealing with the shock and trauma for a while, but we are all ok. I mean, we are obviously not ok, but we are physically intact.

We grabbed a few (though far too few) irreplaceable things. Otherwise, everything we had is gone.

But to be clear - we do have insurance. We have temporary housing and are working on something more long-term. We have income. We are not facing financial ruin. Many have lost lives or livelihoods. Many without insurance have truly lost everything.

Trust me, we understand how helpless you may feel. We feel very fortunate to have so much love and support being sent our way.

We also understand that people really really really want to help and we are coming around on the idea of accepting it. No doubt there will be insurance shortfalls, and we will likely be out-of-pocket on this, potentially by a lot. We are displaced from regional center services and may be incurring significantly increased mental health care costs(?). And who knows what else the future may hold. But as disaster problems go, ours are relatively first-world. There are certainly people with far more pressing immediate survival needs than us and we encourage you to find ways to support them. We are not asking for anything at this time. We really especially do not need STUFF right now. We are trying to stay pretty lean while we are in a hotel and in any case, insurance will cover our lost stuff (well, you know... the replaceable kind).

But if - IF - you really want to do something, it might as well take a form that would be most helpful. (Hence gofundme.)

Thank you all. We will get through this. And please do consider directing some of your good will and material support toward others whose need may be greater.