Got curious about the impact fires may be having on our friends in California. I noticed there are 3 teams in Santa Rosa alone (1 vet and 2 rookies) and wonder about other possible impacts throughout California. Anyone hear anything about impacted teams yet? Condolences to those who may have been impacted by this terrible rash of fires… my team will gladly help in any way we can and I know this community will pitch in where needed. Pretty sure Las Vegas isn’t the only #STRONG community:)
As a quick and rough list of teams who may potentially be affected, I used FIRST’s team finder tool (results at http://bit.ly/2yfduRk)
If there’s anyone on CD from or has connections with:
5728
6814
6883
6918
or any other team currently at-risk that I didn’t mention, are you able to check in with us? I know it’s a long shot but we all want to know you’re safe.
We are down in Vacaville and we are just covered in smoke. Many of the schools in the surrounding area have been cancelled. There has been lots of talk on my team on organizing a community effort to help those affected as well as rebuilding the community after the fires are over. If any team in the area is affected send me a pm with what you need and I’ll make sure we help in whatever way we can.
6918 is the new team from Napa High School. The school is fine, but they had to close school for the week. I talked with the new coach and there are definitely staff and students affected by the fires in the area. It is one of those unfortunate things that the physical items might be spared, but the real loss is with the families who have lost homes, property, and in some cases jobs. 6918 has been trying to get their lab stocked and ready with equipment for the upcoming season, some of that may be on hold for the next month during the recovery period. They were hoping to come check out the Cap City Classic in a few weeks, hopefully some of them can still make it to that.
6474 is in Fairfield, they have closed down schools for the rest of the week. School is fine - just horrible air quality.
701 is also in Fairfield, we have begun to shut down schools starting today for the rest of the week. Again, the school is fine - just horrible air quality.
It’s too early to evaluate, there’s still near zero containment on any of the fires.
Once the smoke clears, we’ll evaluate what we need to do to help keep teams that survive on track to compete and reach out to the wider community for help. (there’s a lot of rookies in that region; our RD had 10 in the north & east bay this year.)
Like Doug said above, the core issue is going to be impacts on families & communities who now have few extra resources to support teams.
In the meantime, if anyone would like to contribute to helping meet basic needs and rebuild the county in general,a donation to the United Way of Wine County is a solid option.