A group of California women are organizing a free shopping event for Los Angeles fire victims and first responders, rallying over a dozen companies to contribute items ranging from clothes to personal care products.
Jessica Lopez, Kelly Lopez, Emily Capretta, Danielle Hutchinson, and Michelle Spears have simultaneously raised $100,000 to help families rebuild their lives within just a matter of days.
Four of them, including Jessica Lopez, Kelly Lopez, Emily Capretta, initially joined forces after the Woolsey Fire decimated their community and displaced scores of families. The foursome didn’t have much experience with event planning, but leveraging their knowledge and resources, they provided hot meals, raised $150,000 in funds and helped give families necessary supplies to start over.
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After several fires erupted across Los Angeles last week, destroying more than 12,300 homes and buildings and leaving at least 16 dead in their wake, the group of women kick-started their efforts once again. This time they are working alongside the nonprofit, California Strong, which was founded shortly after their first initiative, and the YMCA.
In 2018, “we were totally bootstraps. We knew nothing. We were not event planners. This is not what we do for work. We’re not fundraisers, but we were just ignited by this urgent desire to help,” Jessica Lopez told FOX Business.
Jessica Lopez said they organized something similar a few years ago. Still, they had the same motivation to help. “Our team was like, ‘All right, let’s do it again,'” she said.
On Jan. 18, the group will kick off the LA Relief Fire Event at Capretta’s Proactive Sports Performance center in Westlake Village, so families can “get everything they needed to kick-start replenishing all the things they had lost,” Jessica Lopez said.
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Fire victims need to RSVP to the event first.
We want this to be a moment that is beautiful within the heart break
On Saturday, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., PST, victims that have either lost their home entirely or who can’t stay in their home because of fire-related hazards will have to come and “shop” for all the supplies and resources they can physically carry.
Everything is brand new and being donated from major brands like Lululemon, CalPak, Cotton On, and from the community.
The products, include a range of items such as clothing, shoes, food, pet food, toiletries, toys and gift cards.
The team has also created “swag bags” specifically for the first responders who have risked their lives to help save the community. These will be filled with droves of products from local and national brands such as Herbalife, Stonefire Grill, Zevia, Autumn Headwear, Next Health Recovery, Celsius, Athletic Nicotine, SANS, Monster Energy and Sann Supplements.
However, the event will also offer a range of recovery services on site, such as trauma therapists and real estate agents that are ready to help with leases and housing. There will also be a photographer on site so victims can replace their family photos that may have disappeared during the fire.
It will be catered and music will also be playing throughout the entirety of the event.
“When a lot of people lose everything, and they go to these centers, it’s a little depressing and demoralizing” Capretta said. “We want this to be a moment that is beautiful within the heart break.”
Capretta said the beauty of this is that so many people in the community have stepped up to help. In fact, they put out a volunteer form to help with setting up throughout the week and within five minutes the slots were filled. There is currently a waiting list of roughly 100 people who still want to help.
The group plans to start distributing the $100,000 funds raised to families over the next couple of weeks in partnership with the YMCA.
They will use the YMCA’s process to verify the recipients. However, unlike many other groups, Capretta said they have the “resources and funds to cut the checks right away.”
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