District 4-C6 Lions helping evacuees housed at the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds

One of several Wildfire Evacuation Centers where our Lions are providing needed cleaning and medical services. With 500 evacuated families at this one camp and more arriving this morning the need is growing. Thanks to your donations CLF has provided significant funding to this and many other projects helping wildfire victims.

On Saturday evening, August 15, 2020, lightning strikes started hundreds of fires across Northern California. Cal Fire officials later described that the most challenging of the major blazes was the CZU Lightening Complex (“CZU”), and this fire continues to burn more than one month later in the redwood timber-rich Santa Cruz Mountains. As of September 15, 2020, the CZU fire had consumed 86,506 acres and was 91 percent contained. A total of 925 homes and 171 commercial buildings were fully destroyed.

The area of the CZU fire includes such heavily populated areas as Scotts Valley and Felton. Almost 80,000 families were forced to evacuate, most with scant time if any to gather belongings. Thousands were housed at temporary evacuation centers, including the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds and the 7th Day Adventist campgrounds. Some evacuees brought their own trailers and even some livestock to these centers, but most were provided with large tents where they resided for the next two weeks or more. A temporary medical facility was established at the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds, primarily for elderly who were evacuated from full care facilities. Additionally, fire fighters from the National Guard were housed at evacuation centers during their rest periods.

Initially, Santa Cruz County officials were in charge of the evacuation centers. In spite of the complexity and haste, they orchestrated the set-up of the tent cities and directed all of the assistance in a very organized and orderly way. Community service minded volunteers were everywhere, and there was a steady daily stream of vehicles bringing donations of food, clothing, and various other supplies to the centers. Complicating everything was Covid-19, which required masks, social distancing, and extreme attention to cleanliness. Over a week later, the Red Cross took over from the Santa Cruz County as well as FEMA.

On August 17, 2020, Lions from the Freedom Lions Club visited the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds evacuation center, met with the County officials in charge, and asked how we Lions could help. Initially the need was for tents, sleeping bags, and similar. Lions made trips to local stores such as CVS and Target, secured donations, and delivered them to the center. Santa Cruz County officials then asked if the Lions could solve their currently most pressing unmet challenge – laundry. For various public health reasons, the County fairgrounds was not authorized to have on-premises portable laundry facilities for evacuees or fire fighters.

Lions were aware of a newly opened and large laundry facility, open 7 x 24 and fully manned, equipped with 100 washers and dryers, and located perhaps 3 miles down the street from the fairgrounds. Phone contact was made with Dai Truong, owner of “Laundry Day, Watsonville.” Dai was eager to help and offered a discounted laundry rate through Lions for fire victims.

A large contingent of politicians and press visited the Santa Cruz County evacuation center in the days that followed and saw the Lions “Free Laundry Services” signage. Governor Newsom personally was handed a “Where There’s a Need There’s a Lion” business card by County officials.

Freedom Lions Club members also met with County officials at other evacuation centers. A similar laundry facility need was determined at the 7th Day Adventist campgrounds where 500 or more families were housed. Here there was an outbreak of lice infection, there was no nearby laundromat, and a portable laundry trailer to be housed at the campgrounds was urgently requested. Lions got on the Internet and searched for a solution. Because of the multitude of fires up and down the state, the only available trailer for lease was perhaps 350 miles away in the Los Angeles area. Freedom Lions Club placed an immediate credit card deposit to secure its use, and then had the trailer next- day delivered to the campground. Of note, LCI’s insurance policy was put to good use, but secondary liability coverage was also necessary for Lions to pay as part of the lease requirement. The laundry trailer included 6 large washers and dryers which were immediately put to good use by the evacuees. Lions signage was posted outside and within the trailer.

C6 District Governor Linda Pugliese applied for a $5000 emergency grant from the California Lions Foundation. The grant request was immediately approved and a check overnighted.

“Thank you for the update and the CLF grant information.  Our district is grateful for the immediate response to our request for funds to provide a laundry trailer to the evacuation center in Soquel.  The community was very appreciative of being able to do their laundry at no cost, thanks to the Lions of California.  It went a long way to promote goodwill and to serve those who were in desperate need from the CZU Lightning Complex Fire, due to be fully contained by the end of this weekend.“

“It makes me very proud to be a Lion.”

Yours in Service,

Linda Pugliese
District Governor
District 4-C6 California Lions