The 2020 Oregon wildfire season was the most destructive on record. Thousands of homes and eleven lives were lost in fires that ravaged more than 1,000,000 acres. 400,000 of these acres, and five of eleven fatalities, were lost in the Santiam Fires that wreaked havoc in East Marion County and substantially destroyed the towns of Detroit and Gates.
Large-scale, last-minute evacuations from hundreds of homes, some less than fifteen miles away, instantly created urgent and pressing needs. When Ray of Hope Community Thrift Store (ROH) learned that many of these people were forced to evacuate their homes with nothing but the clothes they were wearing, that was our cue to spring into action. Working closely with the Red Cross, who staffed a pop-up shelter for over 200 people in a local Woodburn hotel, ROH invited every evacuee in the hotel to visit the store for a full change of “smoke-free” clothing at no charge.
As lines were forming, ROH put the word out to the community and requested additional donations to meet the need. The response was beyond generous. Our donation area was inundated with boxes and bags filled with high-quality clothing. Our phone began to ring with requests for specific needs and sizes. The very next day boxes of brand new jeans and other needed items began to arrive. None of these items went to the sales floor. Unused items were set aside to meet the future needs of others in our community.
It is our pleasure and a great privilege to be ”compassionately committed to community” in a place where people care for one another like this–where active generosity eclipses comfortable complacency every day in so many ways.
Thank you, Woodburn!