Hidden Valley Lake >> It’s a slow, painstaking and repetitive process to knit a scarf or hat. Volunteers put in hundreds of hours of work to create handmade items for children in need who will never receive those gifts. They also won’t receive the winter coats, socks, school supplies, lunch boxes, duffel bags or the rest of the $200 worth of Christmas presents that were waiting for them in a storage unit packed top to bottom burned by the Valley Fire.
Totes4Teens lost roughly three fourths of its inventory for this year’s duffel bag giveaway to the Valley Fire. The nonprofit organization created in 2004 fills the bags with a list of goods and distributes them to about 100 to 125 teenagers around Lake County every holiday. It started with foster children but has since expanded to help other teens ages 13 to 18 including Carle High School students and teens at the safe house in Clearlake.
“I’m just sick about it,” founder Cheri Johnson said.
Volunteers work year-round looking for the best deals to purchase items and Johnson said with Christmas only a few months away, they likely will not have the luxury of hunting for bargains like they have in the past.
She doesn’t want to cancel this year’s giveaway because with all the recent devastation in Lake County, “now there’s really a need,” but she knows the organization will have to scale down.
Insurance will help some, but there is still a $5,000 deductible and “ no way to capture the time to make over two hundred hand made items by members,” Johnson noted.
Even the boards that would have been put on display in the coming weeks for monetary donations went up in flames, making it that much harder to recover from the loss estimated to be between $12,000 to $15,000.
The Totes4Teens committee has a meeting planned tentatively for the week of Oct. 12 to advise receiving agencies of the donations status and devise a plan on how they will move forward this holiday season.
Johnson said anyone interested in getting involved can reach her at (707) 987-3685 to receive more information. To find out what usually goes into each duffel bag visit totes4teens and email totes4teens@gmail.com to schedule a pick up. To send a letter, write to Totes4Teens at P.O. Box 1862, Middletown, CA 95461.
