We know many of our Five Acres friends and family have been impacted by the fires and we are staying strong with you to ensure our community’s needs are met. We recognize many in our Five Acres family have been affected and continue to support us in this ever-evolving time to provide relief in our recovery.
We continue to fulfill the operational needs to keep the children in our care safe and the staff available to support children and our 5A community and families in need.
Some updates for you:
As of Friday, January 17th, our children are back on main campus! Over 50 individuals, including team members, board of directors, neighbors, vendors, donors, family, and friends, showed up with their gloves, rakes, and brooms to help with recovery day to clean, repair, and warm the campus. Due to our water company being uncertain about the timeline for drinkable water and SoCal gas indicated weeks before gas was restored, we have temporary showers with outside water source and meals secured through end of January as our own equipment is gas powered.
With evacuation orders, return to our location, repairs, and trying to operate without drinkable water and gas requires supplemental supplies and vendors like 6 Portable electric shower units with freshwater tank, and then other supplies to stay operational such as drinkable water dispensers, electric heaters, and gasoline for generators.
We’ve also been continuing to provide mental health services to our 5A children and families, as well as extending to those in our 5A circle vital relief and linkage to service not necessarily covered by our contracts, which has been challenging with @25% of our work force evacuated/home loss; fortunately, the evacuation has dropped to about 10%. While challenged, as so many are right now, our goal and charge is to continue to serve and keep safe our clients under extraordinary circumstances due to this horrific disaster, while at a much higher operational cost during this time.
Your support to Five Acres aids in our efforts that include:
🧡 Costs to support the continued operations of our historical main campus in Altadena to be clean, warm and safe for the children despite still not having potable water or gas.
🧡 Ongoing growing costs to support the care of our foster children in residential care, who were impacted by the Eaton Fire, to stay safe. Any support is appreciated.
🧡 Fund expenses associated in ensuring the continuation of agency programs and operations at our Altadena and Pasadena facilities.
Thank you for helping our foster children, families and 5A community safe in our recovery. And our heart goes out to all of you.
“Here is a little bit of the craziness. Late Tuesday night [on January 7], we were at campus as we knew [the Eaton Fire] could get bad fast, so we wanted to evacuate if told. Power was already out. Only in the cottages where our teams and kids were did we have power: basic lights, heaters, and fridges with our generators. The winds were blowing so strong that we couldn’t even hear when the two massive century-old trees fell in front of the building.
All that time, two county social workers came to our main campus door with a tiny six-year-old boy for placement. No bags or belongings. The poor thing was super anxious. I was a little shocked and said, “Are you sure you are dropping him off with us? We are in the middle of a possible evacuation.” They told me he had nowhere else to go. That was pretty crazy, so we took him, and he was safely evacuated with all the other 5A children to a hotel. The poor boy went from one family to our campus and then to a hotel within 24 hours and now is back on campus along with all the other children. I know the fires have been a disaster for our community, but it did make me realize that foster kids get displaced and experience the loss over and over again. Sad but true.”
—CEO Chanel Boutakidis
Fire Relief In-Kind Needs
We are immensely grateful that our wonderful historic main campus and other facilities remain standing. Our children have returned to the main campus. Many of our 5A families and staff remain in evacuation status or have lost their homes and are in need of your help with basic essentials. Fortunately, we have you, our generous supporters, to help make that come true.
How you can help:
1. Drop off new items or gift cards at Five Acres
2. Order items or gift card from our Amazon Relief Wishlist to be delivered or dropped off at our Five Acres site.
Our greatest needs are for items such as:
- Gift Cards (grocery stores, Target, Walmart, Visa®)
- Bottled Water
- Toiletries & Hygiene Products
- Children’s Medicine (Tylenol®, etc.)
- Sleeping bags, Bedding
- Diapers & Wipes
- Luggage & Duffels
- Air purifiers & filters
How & Where to donate new items:
Amazon Delivery or Drop-Off Location
Five Acres – Main Campus
760 W. Mountain View St., Altadena 91001
Monday – Friday from 7 am – 3:30 pm
For more information, please contact: Jessica Paz at jpaz@5acres.org / (626) 487-3748
Visit our Fire Relief Amazon Wish list here.
