LA Fires Resources & Grant Collection
On the second day of the January 2025 Southern California Wildfires, our office opened what was then a new Google Sheet and labeled it “Humanitas - Los Angeles Fire Resources.” The first thing we remember putting on it was a note about a fish restaurant in Huntington Beach offering meals to anyone driving south after being displaced by the fires.
It sticks out because it reflects so well what would happen over the next several weeks: Ordinary Angelenos coming together to respond to a terrible situation.
Over the next several weeks, the sheet was built out to include resources on housing, clothing, donation spots, information sources, and direct aid activities, like Altadena Girls Fire Recovery, Project Ropa, and our own Groceries for Writers project. The sheet was also used to track screenwriter fundraisers and signal boost the needs of over fifty writers and their families who had lost homes in the fires.
Some of these resources and fundraisers came to us by way of emails. Many more of them came by way of an explosion of Instagram direct messages from writers in our community who had either been affected by the fires or were simply trying to look out for those who had.
Through the barrage of messages, our office got in touch with Douglas Toys, who donated dozens of stuffed animals including stuffed dogs, cats, owls, bears, seagulls, seals, ox, sheep, and unicorns.
These stuffies were then adopted by fire-impacted kids and community members on January 28 when Humanitas hosted a stuffy adoption day at Vidiots. Kids could adopt a free stuffy and stay for a free screening of Robin Hood (1973); Vidiots also offered a free popcorn and drink to each guest. No adoption is complete without paperwork, so our staff had certificates on hand, and delighted as kids paused to give serious thought to the naming process. We had many funny and tender moments throughout the day. Try explaining what a signature is to a 4-year-old: “It’s your name, but squiggly.”
After the event, leftover stuffies were donated to adopted by Altadena’s Saint Mark’s School and Sagewood Schoolhouse, two fire-impacted schools we learned about from the writer community.
While it wasn’t our typical work day, being there in this way for the writer, entertainment, and larger community made sense.
The first writing people do is imbue personalities onto their stuffed animals and toys. You give them dreams, conflicts, and write dialogue for them. They’re your first buddies and their magical lives are your first drafts.
As a writers organization, being able to facilitate this gift to writer families and the entertainment community at large.While there’s no replacing anybody’s teddy bear that would be missing a nose if grandma hadn’t been there to sow a button in its place, but we were honored to help mark a new chapter with a new friend.
Although the screenwriter fundraiser tab has since been archived, the resources collection and over twenty-five grant opportunities remain in the sheet for future reference.
We love you, LA,
Humanitas