Join Altadena's Effort to Help the Barkers

Our family lost our home and possessions to the wildfires. We're seeking support to cover unexpected costs and to get back on our feet.

The Barker boys were still on winter break from college, and Paul and I had just gone back to teaching school. I had grown up in the Pacific Palisades and was accustomed to the occasional evacuation, so I knew to pack and store an emergency bag of clothing and one first aid bag. But this evacuation felt different from previous ones due to the strong winds blowing down the mountain. We voluntarily left after the power had been cut around 9:30PM, but had to return when neighboring cities' hotels were full up.

When we were finally told to evacuate immediately, around 2:30AM, we felt in our hearts we were saying goodbye to our home. By the time we saw ash in Chinatown, where we'd found lodging, the size of the ash size told us that structures were on fire.

The Barker family spent twenty-two wonderful years in our Altadena home, one of our boys having been born there. We lost everything but what fit into the back of a Prius and the bed of a Toyota Prerunner. We spent a couple of hours at the Pasadena Civic Center, sheltering. The Red Cross team helped provide us a space in which we could gather our thoughts and plan next steps. We were thankful to be alive.

Your contributions will help us through this challenging time. These funds will assist with needs that might not be fully covered by other sources of aid.

Your help will allow us to address the many aspects of recovery and support our family through this crisis.