Mister Rogers’s famous advice to “look for the helpers” in an emergency has never felt more apt than it does in Los Angeles right now, where the city and its nearly four million residents are reeling from the series of ongoing wildfires that have devastated whole neighborhoods and communities in the Pacific Palisades and Altadena (among other areas). One thing I couldn’t have predicted a week ago, though, is that, in this case, many of the helpers are my friends and neighbors.
More or less everyone I know in LA is trying to find a way to be of service right now, whether it’s by clearing brush and debris; collecting bottled water, baby formula, new socks and underwear, and other donated items; dropping off food at fire stations; or any number of other actions to fill the city’s very pressing needs. I’m not remotely surprised that ordinary Angelenos are stepping up to meet the moment; of the dozen cities and towns I’ve lived in over the course of my life, Los Angeles is the place where I’ve witnessed the most beautiful and ordinary acts of care between residents. But I am astounded at how quickly people have been able to mobilize.
Yesterday, I arrived back home in East Hollywood, a neighborhood that I’m lucky is relatively safe right now in terms of air quality and fire proximity. My partner, our dog, and I had been staying in Orange County with his family in search of cleaner air, but it was hard to stay away while we were witnessing, in real time, the hands-on volunteerism of our community. One tennis-coach friend gathered rackets and other supplies for youth players in the Palisades, a plus-size-vintage-store-proprietor friend turned her Highland Park shop into a hub for clean and seasonally appropriate clothing donations, and a beauty-writer friend donated her unused product supply to Altadena Teen Girls Fire Recovery.
Despair may be contagious in unprecedented times like these, but so are hope and energy, something I realized firsthand at the makeshift donation distribution centers I visited on Monday. My first stop was Suay, an upcycling-heavy clothing and home goods store in downtown LA whose community dye bath I’ve used for years; the seating area had been converted into a free store for people displaced or otherwise affected by the fires to come take what they need. “We’re in the middle of sorting donations, which includes brand-new and lightly used clothing for everyone from babies all the way to adults,” technical director Wendy Romero told me as we watched exhausted-looking people in KN95 masks sift through the racks. “We’re just going to keep doing this,” Romero added.
My next stop was Superchief, a downtown art gallery that has also repurposed itself this past week. “I think everybody is getting over their egos and just trying to see what is needed,” said Superchief employee Tyler Bradberry. “A lot of families here have relatives in Altadena and Pasadena who lost their homes, and now there are a lot of single-family homes downtown that have 10 or 15 people living in them. So we’re trying to use our networks to see who needs what.” Over the weekend, Bradberry told me, Superchief had to turn volunteers away. By Monday, though, there was plenty to do at the gallery, from hauling bottled water reserves to sourcing items like clean socks and paper towels.
My final stop of the day was the Altadena Seed Library, an organization that, per its website, aims to “expand equitable access to shade and green spaces, increase food sovereignty, connect neighbors, and restore local ecosystems.” Founder Nina Raj and other volunteers were collecting native seeds and other gardening items in an effort to rebuild from the devastating impact of the Altadena fires. “So much of Altadena was lost in terms of structures, but the land has also suffered so much,” Raj told me. “We’re trying to get the word out about people needing to use PPE as they start planting because the soil is really toxic. A large part of our efforts right now is trying to get donations of plants that help remediate the soil—not only native plants but plants that help pull heavy metals out of the soil, like buckwheat and bush sunflower.”
I don’t know when LA will be better or if that’s even the right question while the Palisades and Eaton fires are still raging and countless Angelenos are working to pick up the charred pieces of their homes and lives after unthinkable damage. But as I drove home from the Altadena Seed Library, I paused on a residential street for a few minutes to watch a group of neighbors work together to clear the remnants of a massive tree that had fallen on the sidewalk. It was impossible to tell if they knew each other before the fires or if they were meeting for the first time. But what was obvious was that they were caring for each other. Even among the embers, there are seeds of hope.
