Five weeks ago, I watched flames almost consume our home in L.A. on a live feed from our Nest camera. The now infamous “Palisades Fire” started just a mile from our house. Luckily, our cluster of homes was the first call of the day for firefighters – so we also watched as they saved it. Our friends and neighbors weren’t so lucky. 5,000 homes burned down as did our entire town.
The scale of this loss is almost unimaginable – except I went back after and saw it all. Now, not only can I imagine it, but I’ve had nightmares about what I saw ever since. My mind and body went into a full-on trauma response.
But as soon as I could truly function again, I jumped into action. I organized a two-week clothing drive through my Santa Monica-based bookstore, Zibby’s Bookshop, for which I enlisted 62 brands to donate new clothing. We “dressed” 870 families who had just lost their homes – in 14 days. We also offered free books from the bookshop to anyone who had lost their home and gave away thousands of dollars worth of reading.
Now, I’ve moved on to helping schools that burned down in the fire. Several librarians reached out to our bookstore: Could we help rebuild their collections? Yes. We could and we would. I received book wishlists from four area schools and committed to sending them every book they wanted. The schools include: Marquez Charter Elementary, Seven Arrows Elementary School, the Village School, and St. Matthew’s Parish School. Many of the students at the schools not only lost their school, but also lost their home.
Please consider what it would feel like if you were in this situation. What if your school and home had burned down? Think about what books you loved reading growing up. Reminisce about the friendly librarians. The cozy nook in the library where you fell into a story that changed your life. Perhaps think about the power of school libraries for your children. The books they’ve brought home and begged you to read. The chapter books they couldn’t put down. The times you volunteered to read to the class.
Now imagine losing all of it.
I know so many people want to help families who have been affected by the fires but just don’t know how. Here’s one specific way you can help.
We’re raising the $320,000 needed to completely restore the library collections of four area schools. We’ve raised $120,000 so far, but need help both spreading the word and donating. Every bit helps. We have associated “perks” with every donation level from $25 to $15,000 and up.
So before you purchase anything else – a sweater, a coffee, an Uber ride – consider giving these hundreds of children something they desperately need: books in their schools.
Thanks for playing a role in helping out the families in this beautiful part of Los Angeles who just got massively unlucky.
It could’ve been you.
(Note: please no used books or individual book donations at this point. The schools have specific catalogs that we will be replacing so while the thought is lovely, please don’t send or offer books you’ve written or have in your own library. Thank you!)
Click here to donate.