More Good News Amidst the California Wildfires

0:03 Caloroga Shark Media. Hi there, I'm Choenny Mack with a bonus episode of five Good News Stories. A reminder of changed the publishing schedule to Sunday Tuesday Thursday, and looking at the numbers, seems like everybody's okay with that. Thank you for listening. This is a bonus episode about some good news coming out of the aftermath of the LA wildfires. A California fire chief single handedly saved his brother's house armed with a carton of milk and a few beers. Brian Fennessee was on his way back to check in on his brother. Unable to get in contact with his brother, the fire chief said he's gonna help if he could.

0:43 As he arrived in Altadena, he got a phone call confirming that his brother and the family had safely evacuated. Since the chief was already in the area, I thought he might as well check in on his brother's house. As he pulled up, he soon saw the gasometer in the back of the house had caught fire. Nearby. There was a hose, but no water came out. He said, I thought I'd checked the refrigerator, and while that was in there was some milk and a couple of beers. We went back out and kind of ran back there and cooled it off and pulled it back a little bit. It wasn't completely out, so I wasn't sure if it was going to rekindle, but it was all I could do. As it turned out, it was enough. The two houses that the chief worked on were the only ones in the whole neighborhood not burned down. Randy lives in New Jersey. Her job was to help kids through some of the worst times of their lives, whether they're facing say, surgery, or a parent who's ill. She saw the fires and thought, I couldn't stop thinking what would I grab if I had to leave my three year old stuffed animals. That's part of her own advice to parents that bringing stuffed animals from a home to the hospital creates a sense of normalcy in the midst of extremely challenging circumstances. But you know, she's in New Jersey. The fires are in LA.

1:42 She and her sister in law went on the Internet. They set up an insta to connect California families looking for certain comfort items with people elsewhere in the world who might have the same items on hand. The network is humming along. Matches include a hippo pillow from Spain and a sock creature from the Netherlands. One mom said, you're taking one thing off my Two communities ravaged by the fire came together on the basketball court with a fundraiser game. Mateen plays for Palisades High School and said, I think an event like this brings us together and makes us stronger. Andrew is the COO at Saint Francis High School and said for the boys to be able to come together and compete against one another, but know that they're playing for something bigger than themselves is pretty awesome. The fundraiser had bag goods, donations and lots of raffle prizes.

2:23 They raised more than seven thousand dollars, with the proceeds split between Palisades and Eaten fire victims. Saint Francis won the game, but for the players, matteen said, this was great seeing both communities impacted by the fires come together. It's great to come out here. It's a great distraction from everything going on, and playing basketball has really helped me get back to normalcy. During the game, I think this event was great. Vincent's family lost everything in the etn fire. He said, a lot of people just tell me it's material things, but it's really your heart. It's hard to soak in. He was one of two hundred visitors to the Altadena Teen Boys Fire Recovery, a six day donation drive. He joined other young men in their families walking around piles of donated shoes, hoodies, and sunglasses.

3:04 Out back, there were football games on big screen TVs. Tables had comic books, board games, toys, and brand new footballs and basketballs. A lot of the visitors were interested in the station where volunteers set up custom skateboards donated by streetwear brand golf Wang. Emmanuel is eighteen. Emmanuel is a student at Pasadena City College. He was one of the organizers. While volunteering at a girl's donation drive, a friend introduced him to Samantha, who wanted to launch a boys version, inspired by her eight year old son's insistence and giving some of his toys to kids who had lost theirs in the fires. Manuel said, it's been really hard just to have a regular conversation with people. You're still human and you still want to be treated like one. You don't want to be treated like a lost Puppy All the Time. Tomorrow, Thursday, January thirtieth, the podcast Critical Role is doing a special live one shot D and D adventure. Critical Role will host a chaotic and interactive one shot charity live stream titled Freaky Thursday that we live streamed on Critical Roles membership service Beacon, as well as their Twitch and YouTube channels starting at seven p m.

4:03 Pacific time, Thursday, January thirtieth. Fans can donate a purchase rewards that directly shape the story, and story elements with the most donations will take center stage in the D and D adventure. The group has a goal of raising one hundred eighty thousand dollars. Each fundraising milestone reached will unlock unique surprises, including new allies, unexpected adversaries, or even character sheet swaps. Fans can continue to support their wildlife relief efforts through February twenty eighth by going to the Critical Role Foundation. Nice job, fellow podcasters, and those are your five good news stories for today. Back tomorrow with a normal episode. See you then,