Making Strides in Siskiyou
August kicked off with a bang after a quiet couple of months, with a response to the McKinney Fire in Northern California. Our incident monitoring identified the fire almost right away as a situation that could necessitate a camp and we were in contact with officials in Siskiyou County within 48 hours of ignition, which allowed us to get on the ground with remarkable speed.
After some minor travel-related hurdles – do not try to rent a car or call a taxi after 5pm in Redding! – we made it to Weed, California, where we began to set up camp at the Weed Union Elementary School near the Red Cross’s shelter for folks displaced by the fire. We were able to get the word out through both on the ground efforts distributing fliers and talking to people, as well as through social media, news outlets, official government channels and community connections.
We had camp up and running the day after arriving in Weed – immense thanks to Superintendent Jon Ray and Assistant Principal Allison Blankenship for all your help! – only to be thrown for a bit of a loop when the Red Cross shelter was moved further north to Yreka. The team was up to the task of finding a new location, and we were able to scramble and make a new home at the Jackson Street School in Yreka where we moved for the second week of camp.
Despite the moving parts, we were able to provide 150 hours of free, trauma-informed childcare for the SIskiyou community and facilitate 60 hours of volunteer time. The kids we had were absolutely phenomenal and it was a great joy to see them make new friends, learn new games, and heal together as a group. Our volunteers were absolute rockstars – huge thanks to Bruce and Brianna and our YMCA crew, you were all fantastic! We even were able to have Chico State Child Development Professor Lindsey Nenadal stop by to observe and give us feedback about how we can make our programming even stronger.
What stood out most for us this go around was the community support in Siskiyou. It was truly remarkable and a great testament to working with local stakeholders ahead of disasters to begin building relationships and laying out plans to support families during emergency situations. We were lucky to have the support of The Ford Family Foundation and Crystal Alston, Siskiyou County Emergency Manager Bryan Schenone, the Karuk Tribe’s Emergency Manager Jacqueline Nushi, the Siskiyou Childcare Collaborative and Marie Caldwell, Scott Eastman at the Siskiyou Family YMCA, Steven Bryan at the Siskiyou Community Resource Collaborative, Allan Carver at the Siskiyou County Office of Education, Jim Berry at the Yreka Union School District, and so many others.
While we’re excited to have another successful camp under our belt, we know that we’re still in the thick of fire season and continue to keep a close watch for other incidents where we can help provide relief for families.
With gratitude,
Mikey
Bulletin Board
A huge thank you to the California Fire Foundation for their financial generosity that allowed us to run our Siskiyou camp in at both Weed Elementary and Jackson Street School in Yreka. CFF has been one of our greatest supporters from the get go and we are so grateful for their support.
We are thrilled to announce that we signed a memorandum of understanding with the Butte County Office of Education to be a part of their emergency operations plan. We’re looking forward to continuing our relationship with BCOE leadership and working together to help families and school aged children when disasters strike.
We are now members of the Texas VOAD! We’re overjoyed to be a part of this great group of organizations that help out when disaster hit the Lone Star State. Being a part of this community will allow us to form connections in Texas that can help us set up and run camps in the future.
Lastly, another huge thank you to the Ford Family Foundation for financially supporting our camp in Siskiyou. We’re incredibly humbled to receive a contribution from TFFF and are looking forward to working more with them in the future. Special thanks to Crystal Alston for connecting us with community stakeholders in the area and being an all-around rockstar in helping making camp a success!
