World of Good, San Diego Fires Style

Welcome to another World of Good (WOG) entry here at The Scratching Post. This week we'll focus on the volunteers that are helping out the fire victims all over San Diego. Well, we won't really focus on them, but instead show you about 0.001% of them. The open-hearted charity of this city has been absolutely fantastic.

All through my neighborhood, families have opened their homes to evacuees from the fire areas. There are at least three families who have taken shelter in homes on my block alone.

Yesterday, the kids and I went out to bring needed items to the one of the refugee centers at Qualcomm Stadium. We stopped at a local COSTCO and found the place full of people buying drinking water, toiletries, sleeping bags, paper goods and food for the evacuees. We talked to one couple as we shopped and they told us they were on their way down to San Diego High School where a senior citizens rest home had been evacuated. They said that Qualcomm was filled with donations, but these rest home residents needed help. We all coordinated what we were buying and headed out.

Costco was crowded and on our way out the door, I asked the woman checking receipts how many people were there buying items for donation. She said, "Everybody." It was enough to get you all choked up. My son donated all of his money to the cause as well. That was also enough to get me all choked up. :-)

When we arrived at SDHS, here's what we saw.

There was talk of moving the senior citizens to another facility, one with air conditioning. The owner of this truck offered to take our goods to the new site.

While we were there, cars with donations kept pulling up.

These folks had volunteered to guide donations and direct traffic. They were not city employees.

We were there only about ten minutes, but people just kept coming with more donations.

This couple had bought a brand new cot/sleeping bag and some Depends for the seniors. Fantastic!
I'm not sure how to close this post. It was a fantastic example of free citizens taking care of each other with only administrative support from the government. Things got done quickly and cheerfully. Others on the Internet have complained about FEMA and other agencies. That's silly. We're here to help each other and we can all act faster than any bureaucracy. We're here to do a World of Good.

For more WOG posts, a description of why we WOG and how to join the fashionable and chic WOG Squad, visit this post.

Update: I forgot to mention this little anecdote. A family from the Catholic school my daughter attends wrote an email out to everyone on the school mailing list offering room in their house for any family or relatives fleeing from the fire areas. It's been that kind of reaction here in San Diego.