Fire Recovery for Zorthian Ranch

We lost most of the ranch, the artwork that Jirayr created, retaining walls made of wood burned down, the stage collapsed, the bridge is gone. In an incredible stroke of luck, the 2 main buildings on the property remain- the main house and the "Green House" as we call it. Every other structure, shed, shipping container, and community use space are gone. The photos of the summer camp, the archives of videos, its too tragic to think if all the irreplacable pieces of history that were lost. There is going to be so much work to do just to clean up. My dad lost every thing he owned. He has no car, no clothes. We don't want to put this land in the hands of developers. Please help us keep this place a community space for generations of artists who've come before, and who've yet to come.

My name is Julia if you don't know me, I've been living and working on the property for the last 8 years of my life, I spent almost the entirety of my 20s dedicated to preserving and upholding the beauty that my family created, alongside so many other people. It hasnt been an easy or comfortable life, when I first moved there we didn't have a bathroom or a shower to use, and for a kitchen we just had a small faulty oven with 2 burners that worked, to share among 5 people. We lived that way for a few years, and we've slowly, through hard work and dedication worked the ranch into a place that was finally functional and clean. We have been tending to the land, trying to restore the natural ecology of the landscape for all the bugs and the animals in the area.

All that work is gone now, but the love remains and all I want is to be sure we won't be having to sell this land to new developers, and we can retain some energy of what Altadena was.

I don't know what our future will hold but we are resilient, and we are going to figure it out. We will need to clean up, and we will try to rebuild as best we can. If you've ever been to the ranch, you know how special a place it was. I think it influenced and affected more people than we can ever know, as we tried to bring as many people in to experience it as we could. Whether you came by for a musical performance one time, a friend's wedding, a weekend getaway, or any other number of reasons one may find themselves there; we need help.

I don't know if it's possible to raise this much, but we know rebuilding the bridge alone will cost over $100,000, and that's just the beginning.

There are also 20 docents who called this place home, dedicated so much care and energy to the ranch, filled it completely with love, and lost so much- most lost everything beside what few things they could grab while also trying to protect and defend the ranch from the fire. If each person got only $5,000, that would be $100,000 just for them.

The ranch will need help with costs of clean up, a 9k mortgage that will still need to be paid monthly, meanwhile the place has no income source anymore.

We've never in all the years of our existance had a fundraiser, we've always scraped by and found ways to continue to exist, despite all the challenges. But this time, we need help. If you've ever come to this place, heard of this place, found magic here or felt joy here, please consider donating. We really need any help we can get.

Here's a breakdown of what we are hoping to raise right now:

108k for the mortgage for a year

100k for ranch docents

100k for the bridge

5k for animal feed, and potentially rent to stable the animals for the next who know how long until we can figure out what to do with them. They can't stay on the ranch at the current moment, some have been temporarily moved to other places.

92k for debris cleanup. It's a lot.

This won't cover everything, but it is a place to start.