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What I Learned From Sorting Donations For the SoCal Fires

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The January 2025 Southern California wildfires are beyond a crisis. Dread unfolds in inches across the Watch Duty app while we flatly gape. Last weekend, this reporter visited Medicine For Nightmares to help sort through donations that are heading down to Los Angeles as you read this article.

Donations. Photo from Shutterstock.

Here’s what I learned.

People Want to Feel Good

Debates about altruism aside, one thing nonprofit workers and donation-seekers know is that people want to feel good when they donate. It’s natural; you go out of your way to help and you want verification and validation that your help is welcome. But we also live in such an individuals-first society that we need to practice decentering. If you donate but aren’t sticking around to help, don’t linger while volunteers process what you brought. It’s not Christmas and you’re not a rich auntie watching children unwrap presents. Again, it’s such a natural inclination and this isn’t meant to shame you – just notice when the ego is creeping into your acts of service.

Y’all Really Need to Go Through Your Medicine Cabinet More Regularly

Ok, this is a little shamey because I’m WORRIED about you. Expired medicine can be dangerous. Multiple people dropped off medicines that were over ten years old. When I buy new medicine, I do the same thing – push the older bottles to the back because I’m feeling lazy. 

But for those of us who worked in Fast Food, there’s a good practice to use: First In, First Out. That helps avoid serving expired food and it’ll help you avoid donating expired medicine. Whatever you put into your kit first, whatever is oldest, should be the one you open first.

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Our Definitions of Sanitary Vary. 

Over the holidays I was regaling a friend with a story about someone clipping their nails in a place where that was inappropriate and he said, I mean we’ve all used the clippers at the rock climbing gym haven’t we? No, dear, we have NOT. 

When I was little, my mother told me not to eat food at a certain distant tia’s house because she washes the floors with the same rags that she hangs in her kitchen. It was my first lesson growing up in my New Mexican household that people have different standards of cleanliness. We also learned to carefully sanitize items from the thrift and to never, ever buy used underwear no matter how down and out we were.

With your heart in the right place, it is okay to donate hygiene items like combs or nail clippers that are opened and presumably used. But remember that sanitizing is an extra step that not all natural disaster victims have. 

Sitting by Idly is Deeply Uncomfortable for our Brains and Hearts

If you’ve spent any part of the last ten days donating, coordinating, volunteering, or even doxxing predatory landlords, hell yeah! Good for you. I was one of them, and sorting through donations with others made me feel a hell of a lot better than sitting at home. 

With the news of disaster quite literally at our fingertips, it’s impossible to avoid feeling empathy. Donations jump up when a disaster strikes. It’s statistics. But it’s also beautiful. One study in Croatia in the thick of the pandemic described lines for blood donations out the door after an earthquake despite the fear of Covid:

“The aim of this report, which we are writing while the ground is still shaking, is to document not only the tragedy and sufferings, but also the kindness and solidarity of people who suppressed the fear of the pandemic to help their fellow citizens. We thank them for that.”

This image was made by Stuart using Midjourney because all the stock images were hella cheesy.

Compounding Disasters are a Huge Threat

We sorted hundreds of boxes of face masks, many left over from the mask mandates during the worst of the pandemic. Disaster after disaster is a numbing wave of grotesque familiarity that grows in tandem with the frequency of crises we face. 

In Southern California’s case, there are compounding disasters like a lack of water supply, dangerous winds, power outages, dangerous air quality, an overworked fire department, and more. In San Francisco a hundred years ago, there was an earthquake and then a fire. Disasters layer over like silt and gum up our responses.

It’s why during a disaster the best thing you can do is try not to injure yourself. Don’t use the phone for nonemergencies. Don’t make things more dangerous by flying drones or lighting firecrackers. Stay out of the way and let the responders work. 

We’re Sort Of Ready

We have the skills, the networks, and the ability to fend for ourselves in the event of a disaster. But we’re also hindered by the current state of the government, even and especially in liberal California. 

After the 1906 earthquake and calamity, the papers consistently remarked that SF was full of polite people. In fact the biggest problem was that cops prevented Chinese San Franciscans from entering their zone so that rich white ladies could loot (Source: John Baranski, Housing the City by the Bay: Tenant Activism, Civil Rights, and Class Politics in San Francisco). Parallels abound.

By cutting into other services to feed the insatiable greed of the Police State, we risk what’s happening in Los Angeles: Uniformed cops patrolling the fire with guns, pulling over Black and Brown people, and bringing more fear to an already stressful situation. What are they gonna do? Shoot the fire? 

People Really Want to Help

Sorting through donations reinforced something I wasn’t so sure about anymore in the wake of the brutal elections, the ongoing genocide, and all of the suffering in the world: People are fundamentally good. They want to help. And isn’t that lovely? In the face of all this ash is a smiling neighbor reaching out to help.

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Bunny McFadden

Bunny McFadden

Bunny McFadden is a Chicana mother, writer, and educator in San Francisco.