The End of Summer

The end of summer has been a little hectic! During the last week of August we had several wildfires that burned close to here (about 1 mile away) for three days. It was a very scary time for us. We were evacuated from our home on Tuesday. James came home from work, and together we grabbed every item that was valuable or important to us. It was not easy to pick and choose which items were worth bringing. Thank goodness we had my mom and dad's house to go to wait it out. Wednesday was an amazing night. All of my neighbors stood with us in our driveway watching the orange flames buring near the neighborhoods surrounding us. It was beautiful but frightening. I decided that I wanted to do something for the firemen that were risking their lives to fight these fires around us. They were coming from as far away as 160 miles and some had been fighting the fires for 30 plus hours. I asked my neighborhood for donations, and they really pulled through. We raised over one thousand dollars in just two days. Lots of local stores donated items to the firemen. I contacted McAlisters Deli and Jersey Mike's sub shop. Both donated a very generous amount of sandwiches for the firemen. Thursday night after most of the fires had settled Anne Braden, Max, Caroline and I all loaded up to deliver food and Gatorade to the firemen. We found one group that was still out in the field fighting hot spots. They were unbelievably greatful; some of them had not eaten since 8am. We left that group of firemen and went to the "command center" they had set up. When we arrived there were tons of firemen and emergency personel. The Red Cross had run out of food, so when the Red Cross volunteer saw us she was over-joyed. She told us that we were a blessing because she had firmen coming out of the woods starving. It was an amazimg night for me and for Caroline. She had the oppurtunity to see generosity and kindness first hand. She saw the strangers generosity when they donated food, our generosity when we delivered food, and the amazing generosity of the firemen riskig their lives for us. What a gift for my daughter. I will never foget my three year old daughter looking up at a huge soot covered firemen and saying "thank you for keeping me safe in my house." What a beautiful sight. I am greatful for the goodness of all those friends, family and even strangers.