MIDDLETOWN >> “It’s round two,” Moke Simon, Vice Chairman of Team Lake County(TLC), announced at their monthly general membership meeting which was held at the Middletown Rancheria’s Event Center. It was one year ago in October of 2015, right after the Valley Fire swept down from Cobb and spread through Anderson Springs, Middletown and Hidden Valley that volunteers and humanitarian agencies came together to form a community based, non governmental, long term recovery group to assist uninsured (and under insured) fire survivors.
Now, as the second year of work has begun, approximately thirty TLC leaders meet each month to plan and evaluate their progress as they strive to restore their community.
Two resourceful volunteers, Mike Dunlap and Marty Heise, had already jumped into action soon after the Valley Fire broke out. Heise had donated the use of her church in St. Helena to be the Command Center for the Red Cross. Dunlap, drawing upon his experience in logistics procured eighteen shipping containers from the Port of Oakland to be used for storing the tons of donations which were pouring into Lake County from everywhere to help fire survivors.
The “tin cans,” as Dunlap calls them, are about forty feet long, eight feet wide and ten feet high. He placed these portable storage units at the Lakeport Airport, Middletown Lions Club, “Little Red School House” in Cobb and elsewhere.
In the first Team Lake County meeting last year, at the Lower Lake Methodist Church, each volunteer or representative of a humanitarian agency explained what they could offer for the long term recovery effort. When it was Dunlap’s turn, he stood and declared, “I’m the guy that gets stuff. That’s what I do.”
Heise, who also attended those early, formative meetings for TLC, also ‘gets stuff.’ Once her church, New Harvest Church in St. Helena, finished hosting the Red Cross Command Center after the emergency relief efforts for the Valley Fire, she came to join TLC as a representative of her church, where she soon became the Donations Committee Chairman. She has worked tirelessly to accept and retrieve donated household goods, plus whatever else can be used by fire survivors.
In the St. Vincent storage yard in Lower Lake ‘tin cans” provided by Dunlap and Lake County Rising, are full of brand new furniture and kitchen items designated for TLC clients. Heise also uses a “tin can” to store donations for TLC.
Prior to collaborating with St. Vincent de Paul, Heise had to use New Harvest Church funds to pay for storage fees in Middletown. Now she can use St. Vincent de Paul’s storage yard at no cost. “ TLC” is made up of a lot of moving parts,” Heise explained, “The member organizations are like gears that need to mesh.”
Heise’s husband, Lynn, along with another volunteer, David Huckins, were helping Heise unload their vehicles which were stuffed with donated furniture and household goods. “We come up with donations once a week on average” Lynn said, But sometimes there are weeks when it’s ‘go,go,go.’ Lynn, who has retired after thirty-six years as a plumber and boiler man at St. Helena Hospital, was happy to have the help of the youthful Huckins, who he praised as a “strong volunteer.”
Unloading donated items out of her car Marty Heise proudly declared, “See this? That’s really good furniture. I put it ‘on hold’ for a specific case manager who needs it for one of her TLC clients.”
Heise, who is also a case manager for TLC, networks with other case managers who let each other know what their clients need. Looking out at a separate pile of furniture in need of repair, Heise said, “We need a volunteer to repair furniture. It’s a shame to throw away really good quality furniture that just needs a little fixing up. Maybe there’s someone out there that would enjoy working on this a few days a week.”
Indeed, humanitarian volunteers continue to team up with TLC to work together in “round two” of the community based long term recovery effort for the survivors of the Lake County Fires.
Volunteers come and go, depending on their time and interests. Dunlap has recently withdrawn from TLC to devote his attention to his responsibilities as Vice-President of Cobb Mt. Lions Club where he continues to devote himself to the needs of fire survivors within the Cobb community.
