As fires burn across Southern California, these people jumped into action to help their neighbors in unique ways
Annie Harvilicz just planned to take in her brother’s two pets as he evacuated his Pacific Palisades home on Tuesday, Jan. 7.
But by the end of the week, as high winds and wildfires continued to sweep Southern California, the veterinarian had several dozen animal evacuees — cats, dogs and even rabbits — taking refuge in the Marina del Rey animal hospital she owns.
- Read our latest coverage on the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire
Meanwhile, stylist and designer Melynda Choothesa was in a business meeting with a colleague, both finding themselves unable to focus on social media strategy amidst continued news of destruction.
“How could we possibly talk about promoting the business when the city is literally on fire?” she asked. “Why don’t we pivot and use our resources, our existing infrastructure, to make something really great happen.”
So she took to Instagram, posting a call for clothing donations that she’d be accepting at her vintage clothing boutique Quirk in downtown Los Angeles. She is putting together another “boutique” of sorts, one where people who have lost everything in the fires can come and shop for free. An experience, she says, that is meant to be more dignified.
“People deserve to have dignity,” said Choothesa. “They’ve already lost everything. We don’t want to give them just any old thing because it’s something they can put on their back.”
Her request immediately took off. Within 24 hours, large garbage bags and suitcases full of donated clothes took over an empty store across the hall from her boutique. As of Friday evening, Choothesa estimated she had taken in about 5,000 pounds of clothes.
And that’s just from people in and around the city. Promises of more donations from people around the country have also flooded in.
Harvilicz and Choothesa are just two people — among so, so many — who have stepped up to help their neighbors amid the winds and fires, using their personal talents and contacts and infrastructure to help in ways that they know best.
Harvilicz, a veterinarian for 20 years, said she looked around and thought about the space sitting unused in Marina del Rey.
“This is an empty slate,” she said. “There are plenty of animals that we could keep here. We need to help people.”
Like Choothesa, Harvilicz also took to social media to offer her space to evacuees. The response, she said, was overwhelming — and it was mostly people who weren’t seeking shelter but rather to donate food and time and supplies.
At one point, the hospital housed 40 pets. By Friday morning, Jan. 10, Harvilicz was only playing host to some 18 dogs, most animals reunited with their families.
Meanwhile, the urge to help their Southern California neighbors extended into neighboring counties, as well.
Celebrity Chef Andrew Gruel put out the call that Calico Fish House, his Sunset Beach restaurant, would cook for anyone displaced by the fires. Its large parking lot could also serve as a place for people to camp out.
Jeff Provance asked for the community’s donations of blankets, clothes and non-perishables to be dropped at his Blooms Irish Pub in San Clemente. He would take care of distributing to people in need.
By the end of the week, Blooms’ back storage room was filled with donated goods. Provance’s plan to use the bed of his pick-up truck to haul donations up to the Los Angeles area pivoted to a rented U-Haul trailer.
Then to a large 10-foot truck.
And then again to a 26-footer.
“I’m so glad to see the community coming together,” Provance said. “It’s right in our backyard, so we should be doing all we can. It feels like a different country when you watch the news. But it’s literally an hour away.”
People flooded the Calico Fish House parking lot with donations and volunteers were packing the water, diapers and pet food onto trucks to head north.
Among them was Bill Schallmo, a Costa Mesa resident who is still recovering from a knee replacement surgery he had six months ago. He arrived at the restaurant at 6:30 a.m. on Friday, tackling the large pile of donations that filled the front door to the restaurant.
“Whatever little I can do, I’m going to do it,” said Schallmo. “Relatively speaking, this is nothing. A day out of my life.”
The sheer amount of goodwill across Southern California alone has been astounding, so much so that non-evacuees who showed up to the Pasadena Convention Center — what has become a hub for those who fleed the Eaton fire — to help were turned away.
“Due to an overwhelming outpour of donations and support, the Pasadena Convention Center is no longer able to accept food, water, emergency supplies or donations of any kind until further notice,” it posted to social media on Thursday. “We thank you for your generosity.”
Michael Giardina was one of those folks who showed up to help but was turned away.
He found a way to volunteer anyway.
Giardina posted up outside the center, making peanut butter sandwiches. Soon, his family joined in. When the center was full of volunteers, other local residents came out and affixed themselves to the effort.
On Wednesday, they made about 400 sandwiches. Then came another 250 on Thursday.
Frances Silva, who joined the effort, said, “We kind of just made this into something it wasn’t.”
As Giardina put it, the goodwill just began circulating. Even evacuees were donating for other fellow evacuees.
Choothesa, who was raised in a Thai and Buddhist family where benevolence and community and helping others were paramount, said she’d rather be in the background of these humanitarian efforts but knew she had the unique resources to pull something like a nice “shopping” experience for evacuees off — and quickly.
“I love my community, and I love my friends, and I want to see people do well,” she said. “Honestly, it’s just a matter of believing in helping the community and the greater good and abandoning a sense of individualism.”
Choothesa is still seeking volunteers and donations for her clothing drive, which she is doing in conjunction with the Historic Core BID and Well Cloth’d, a Brooklyn-based nonprofit that provides clothes to women of color in need.
Aside from good-condition clothes, she’s also seeking racks and hangars to display the items. People can also pledge to work as a “community captain,” collecting items in their neck of the woods and delivering them to her downtown Los Angeles boutique (located at 112 West 9th St., #200), or volunteer to help sort through the donations. (She plans to donate items that are soiled to a textile recycling outfit or work with a cleaning service or laundromat to clean them.)
Anyone interested in donating or volunteering can find out more at shopquirkla.com/la-fire-help or by emailing lafirehelp@gmail.com.
Harvilicz, aside from taking in evacuees’ pets, also runs a nonprofit animal rescue group, the Animal Wellness Foundation, that has already created search and rescue teams to find more animals affected by the fires. Find out more at animalwellnessfoundation.org/donate.
“We’re looking around for animals that need care,” Harvilicz said. “There are going to be animals that have smoke inhalation, lacerations, burn wounds.”