Lakeport >> Boxes upon boxes filled with clothing, toiletries household goods and other donations that have yet to be given away remain at the Work Right Warehouse Valley Fire Distribution Center slated to close later this month.
Today it will be host to the Community Service Day from 9 a.m. to noon for which people are encouraged to volunteer and help sort through clothing donations for Valley Fire survivors. All they need to do is show up.
The center will close less than a week later on Feb. 26, and it couldn’t come at a better time, said warehouse manager Lori Thornton, who has been volunteering since the Monday after the fire broke out on Sept. 12, along with her family, on an almost daily basis.
“Part of the Lake County recovery is we need to move forward,” she said. Shutting down the donation center is part of that process.
After serving hundreds of families per week at its peak, providing emergency essentials such as sleeping bags, tents, water and paper plates, only a handful of people still visit the center to receive donations. Many have moved on to the rebuild process and no longer need the helping hand.
But plenty of others in Lake County do, Thornton said, so what is not given to the fire survivors upon the closure will be distributed throughout the county to nonprofits and local agencies. Keeping donated items within the county is the goal, she said.
Items will also still be available at the Little Red School House in Cobb and the Seventh Day Adventist Relief Supply Center in Lakeport for people affected by the fire. Unusable donations, either dirty, torn or damaged, are being sent for recycling.
Friday afternoon AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps Team Blue 3 members were busy going through boxes of clothing and separating them into crates of women’s, men’s, boys, girls and baby clothing.
The volunteers hail from around the country as far as Florida and Washington, D.C. to help with recovery efforts during their roughly two-month stay in Lake County. The 10-person team consists of 18 to 24 year olds who’ve signed up for a 10-month commitment to serve areas affected by natural disasters, as well as infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and conservation, and urban and rural development, said AmeriCorps member Erin Dye, of Phoenix, Arizona.
With so much still left to sort and be distributed, it’s not likely all of the items will be gone once the distribution center’s lease ends at the end of March to make room for a new business. On Feb. 27, there will be a community garage sale. For the price of $5 per bag, anyone can fill them up with leftover donated items, and the funds collected will go back to the Lake County recovery efforts.
The Work Right Warehouse Valley Fire Distribution Center is located at 4615 Work Right Circle in Lakeport. For more information, visit the center’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/warehousedistributioncenter/.
