The Healdsburg Running Company (HRC) has partnered with the Sunrise Rotary Club of Healdsburg to start a GoFundMe campaign, which has already raised over $38,000, to help local restaurants feed firefighters and to distribute important gear such as masks, water bottles, socks and soap.
In five days, the campaign has raised $38,168 and HRC founder and owner Skip Brand has been busy coordinating with a slew of local eateries and delis to hand deliver snacks and meals to firefighters on the eastern lines of the Walbridge Fire in Mill Creek and Westside Road.
Brand, whose father was a firefighter, said there are several phases to his “giving back” campaign — getting fire crews food, gear and clothes, showing gratitude with hand painted signs with wood donated by Healdsburg Lumber and helping to support evacuees.
“We put a plan together and the plan was really simple, the problem was pretty big,” Brand said. “One, restaurants are hating life right now because of COVID and so the big issue is they’re going to give food away, but this time they are going to give until it hurts … so my worry was if we didn’t raise (funds) or do something, our friends in the restaurant business would be in trouble.”
Kim Neal, a Healdsburg native, helped set up the campaign through the Healdsburg Rotary and within hours of setting up the GoFundMe page, donations started coming in from organizations like the Healdsburg Police Officers Association and from residents in areas like Mill Creek and Sweetwater who wanted to express their thanks to the firefighters.
So far, restaurants and markets like Summer’s Market and Deli, The Taste of Tea, Catelli’s, BurtoNZ Bakery, KinSMOKE, Safeway, Valette’s, Big John’s Market, Barndiva Healdsburg, the Russian River Tea Company, Journeyman Meats and many others, have donated pre-made meals, sandwiches, baked goods and countless burritos to both local and mutual aid first responder crews.
On Aug. 24, Brand helped distribute sandwiches from journeyman meats to the local fire crews at the Healdsburg Fire Department and Healdsburg Fire Chief Jason Boaz said in a video, that the donation will make a lot of firefighters very happy.
“We really appreciate the support from the community in times like these,” he said.
Bigger eateries and food distributors like Mateo’s and Valette, Lola’s, the Diaz Brothers, Farm to Pantry and local farmers also wanted to give and according to Brand, they’re going to start doing meals so folks can have something other than burritos for a change.
“Many of the guys I met today were 10-days in (their shift) so I’ve been feeding them burritos. So, the neat thing is they’ll get food brought to them,” Brand said.
On Aug. 26 Dustin Valette, the owner and head chef of Valette prepared a car full of meals for first responders.
“The first responders and the firefighters helped save our town, it is the least we can do,” Valette said in a video posted to the HRC social media page.
Companies like Guayaki and Red Bull, the drink of choice among firefighters, also donated cases of energy drinks. Guayaki provided over 40 cases of Yerba Mate for the cause and Red Bull handed out its watermelon-flavored caffeine drink.
“Phase three is evacuees, that’s next,” Brand said.
The next part of their work will be giving out free hard goods like shirts, clean socks, underwear, shoes and things like facial coverings and water bottles to both firefighters and evacuees.
Aug. 27 was burrito and sandwich deployment day and later in the afternoon Brand set up a tent outside his store on Center Street and provided free Marmot t-shirts and underwear for fire crews and evacuees, free energy chews, energy tabs from The Taste of Tea and non-alcoholic beer from Athletic Brewing.
For the gratitude aspect of the project, kids and locals worked on decorating signs with colorful hearts and phrases like “Thank you firefighters,” and placed them throughout areas of town.
After these steps, Brand said the focus will be on helping evacuees and figuring out what their needs are whether it’s being open for business or doing something to help with education.
To learn about all of the businesses who have partnered with “Food to Firefighters,” visit: https://www.facebook.com/healdsburgrunningcompany.
To donate to the “Food to Firefighters” campaign, visit: https://www.gofundme.com/f/food2firefighters?fbclid=IwAR0dTx-Mt3MVSbwoMbx6sM6lfuIalAi6BTqjlSmKyvVg2LxpaaJHBRid4cU.
