Help the Morel-Kosok Family in Their Time of Need

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To our friends, family, and everyone who has donated to this GoFundMe—whether we know you well or we’ve never even met:

Thank you. It’s impossible to express how much your support has meant to us during one of the most difficult periods of our lives. Because of you we have been able to begin to recover from the immense loss of our beloved Altadena home and community. We know that we will be processing the fires and their effects for a long time to come, but you have enabled us to regain some of our footing in a time that feels unimaginably chaotic for so many. We are deeply and profoundly grateful.

We’ve only found the time now to write this note because we’ve been so busy with, well, everything that losing one’s home entails, but we wanted to finally send you some information and updates:

On January 7, Sabrina’s birthday, the four of us and Sabrina’s mom and stepdad had just returned from Chile when the high wind warning went into effect, so before any evacuation orders for our area had even been issued we decamped to a hotel in downtown Pasadena. We barely brought anything with us except for our two cars, thinking we were being overly cautious and we’d be back home the following day. That night, in the middle of the night, evac orders for our neighborhood came down and we knew by the following morning that our house had burned to the ground.

Thanks to the immense generosity of Gail & Megan, Loren, Drew & Ren, and Laura, Chea & Magda, we were housed in the desert and back in LA for the first few weeks after the fires—and clothed, too, thanks to Lauren Shapiro—before landing where we are now and will be for the near future: a two-bedroom apartment in Atwater in close proximity to many of our loved ones. Of course we plan to rebuild in Altadena, but we can’t say for now how long that process will take. We know that not everyone affected by the fires has been as fortunate as us, and how lucky we are to have had this be our version of the story.

Things are only just beginning to stabilize in this new normal and there’s so much ahead. But there have been some real sweet spots amidst it all. Milla, who just turned 1, took her first steps in our new apartment! And Maitén, who just turned 8, is really loving the pool at the new place—and also getting to be neighbors with his lifelong bestie Davis Jean! The complex is right next door to the LA River bike trail, where Maitén first learned to ride a bike, so we have good associations with and memories of this area. As he was falling asleep the other night, Maitén said he feels safe in the new apartment, which reassured us that even though this is a temporary situation, it’s a good one for now.

Again, we could not have done any of this without your support. Our family feels so held by our expanded community.

And again, we also recognize that not everyone in our situation has had the opportunities we’ve been given. We want to continue to uplift those who need more support, especially Chea’s family, who she has been fundraising for even as she was kind enough to start this GoFundMe for us. You can donate to the Cash family here and help them reach their goal as well: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-tamara-greggs-after-la-fires?attribution_id=sl%3A53725856-aeba-474d-984b-eafce91e5ee2&utm_campaign=fp_sharesheet&utm_medium=customer&utm_source=copy_link

You can also donate to the Greenline Housing Foundation’s Eaton Fire Relief Fund, which focuses on helping Black and Latino Altadena residents rebuild and remain in the community: https://greenlinehousing.org/give/

Please, if you can, share this information/these efforts, since we know you all understand that

real community doesn’t leave anyone behind.

Thank you, and all our love,

Sabrina, Moira, Maitén & Millaray

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We have created this fundraiser page for our dear family friends Sabrina, Moira, and their two children Maitén and Millaray. They make a magical, warm, beautiful life wherever they are. If you have the means, this is an opportunity to give back and support them with boundless generosity. Sabrina and Moira are generous with close friends and loved ones (and they are rich with those), but they also extend the same passionate generosity to anyone they see in need, whether they know them well or not. When they see an opportunity to help, they jump at the chance like it’s their job. If you are able, please donate or share this fundraiser. Please also keep the Morel-Kosok family in your prayers at this time.

THANK YOU! ❤️