Our churches and volunteers of the California-Pacific Conference have made a great impact providing support, immediate assistance, and a caring Christian Presence to survivors of the recent Woolsey Fire from mid-November to early December 2018.

Based at the Conrad Hilton Foundation offices in Agoura Hills, CA, the Los Angeles County Disaster Assistance Center (DAC) was where the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and the Cal-Pac Disaster Response Task Force were present along with a host of county, state and federal governmental agencies including FEMA and the SBA.

The Task Force is proud to report, and have the documentation to support the findings, that over the time the DAC was open, 39 separate United Methodist volunteers from over 17 churches, as well as guests from two additional separate Annual Conferences, put in 899.25 volunteer hours serving survivors with a listening ear, providing referrals to other resources, and providing Tyvek suits, sifters, masks, gloves, luci lights for power disruptions, $50 gas cards and a document recovery check list.

In an effort to “do all the good we can,” and honor such generous giving, the Task Force developed a method of quantitatively taking into account all that the second mile giving had made possible.  It is yet another reminder that, although a disaster might drop quickly out of the news cycle, recovery may take years and every donation counts.

The Task Force expresses its gratefulness to the Conference in this Advent Season for joining in the caring of, and ministering to, over 200 survivors of the Woolsey fire.