Amazing Community

I know it will eventually fall off, but right now, there are more volunteers than there are spots! All of the "official" organizations--Red Cross, Humane Society, etc. have all of the supplies they need and all of the volunteers they need. This is with more than 2000 homes burned! As time goes by, I am sure that they will start needing more. . .but it is heartwarming to hear that. Of course, they are still asking people to put their names in the volunteer database! They can always use more names!

Tomorrow our area is hosting a "free store" for families affected by the fires. (In our school district, reported so far, 20 staff members and 350 students have lost their homes.) We spent all day today going through clothes, sheets, and kitchen stuff. We ended up with about 15 large lawn and leaf bags full of stuff. It made me feel really bad. I can't believe that we had that much stuff that we could so easily give away. But, most of it was kids clothes, and since we have 3 boys--we keep everything for hand me downs. Today we went through every size of clothes and anything that we had several of, we sent some to the donation area. It was good to help, I guess. Still feel kinda bad about it.

I am going to go work at the store tomorrow. I am thinking of volunteering for Rebuilding Together San Diego. It is a year round organization that rebuilds people's homes. I'm not sure what I can do, but I am good at projects. I can always paint walls or dig holes for flowers!

The irritation and frustration and impatience is starting to surface, as many people are returning home, and a few must still be out. They don't have power restored, or they have no water, but the residents just want to go home. It is natural, I just hope that the media doesn't seize on that. There are so very many good angles to this story. . .