Petalumans donate to Butte County fire victims

A conference room at PEP Housing’s Petaluma office was packed last week with supplies: Canned food, clothes, camping gear, piles of toilet paper.

On Friday, staff from the nonprofit that builds senior housing loaded up a box truck to deliver the supplies to Oroville, which is sheltering many evacuees fleeing the Butte County wildfire, the deadliest and most destructive in state history. Smoke from the fire blanketed Sonoma County since it ignited in the town of Paradise Nov. 8.

The drill of collecting and distributing aid for fire victims has unfortunately become routine for PEP Housing. Last October, the nonprofit served as a donation center for Petalumans wishing to give to victims of the North Bay fires. PEP Housing also collected donations for Lake County fire victims in 2015.

Mary Stompe, PEP Housing executive director, said last year’s fires hit close to home for many people since they were so close to Petaluma. But the so-called Camp Fire has since surpassed state records as at least 79 people have been killed and 10,000 structures have been destroyed.

“It’s unbelievable. I thought nothing could be worse than last year’s fire,” Stompe said. “But this year, so many more people have died and so many more structures have burned. We’re still working on recovering from the Tubbs Fire.”

Many of those who lost homes in Butte County were seniors, and Stompe said the nonprofit is already talking about building senior housing in the area. PEP Housing opened a property in Oroville in 2014, Stompe said, so the nonprofit is familiar with the region.

PEP’s donation drive was a community effort. Friedman’s Home Improvement donated 40 bins to help transport the goods, Grocery Outlet donated 30 first aid kits, and one woman even donated the inventory of a shoe store that closed down, said Ty Camacho fundraising outreach coordinator for PEP Housing. Four teachers come in to help sort the products while school was shut down due to the smoke.

Stompe said PEP Housing is only making one aid delivery and is not accepting any more donations other than gift cards or money. The Salvation Army or the Red Cross are other groups that can get assistance to Butte County fire victims.

As Petalumans were asked to open their wallets for yet another disaster, nonprofits were worried that “donor fatigue” would set in, said Elece Hempel, executive director of Petaluma People Services Center. Donor fatigue is when people begin to tune out appeals for assistance after giving for many other causes.

PPSC doesn’t have programs in Butte County, but the nonprofit’s crisis intervention team has been counseling Sonoma County residents who were triggered by the smoke from the recent fire, Hempel said.

“We were worried even last year about how Sonoma County was affected by donor fatigue,” Hempel said. “It keeps me up at night. I worry about how we’re going to make it through the donor fatigue.”

She said her organization’s fundraising was down this year as donors’ generosity was stretched thin.

Instead of giving money, Hempel recommended volunteering time, which helps nonprofits save considerable grant money.

During PEP Housing’s donation drive, Petaluma resident Mabry Brayton dropped by to unload a trunk of donated supplies including toilet paper and baby wipes. Her son and grandsons live in Chico and her grandsons’ other grandparents were burned out of their home in Paradise.

She said her extended family ran a daycare center in Paradise that was completely destroyed. The family fled to Redding.

Brayton said she didn’t think twice about donating.

“How could you not? It’s just horrible,” she said. “A lot of people are reliving the emotions of last year with all the smoke. It’s traumatic for a lot of folks.”

(Contact Matt Brown at matt.brown@arguscourier.com.)