Job well done
EDITOR: Hats off to Bonnie Wlodarczyk, CEO of the Cloverdale Citrus Fair, for her hard work and leadership through the fire disaster. Within hours of the first alarms Monday morning Bonnie was at her desk at the Citrus Fair managing that facility as a major evacuation center for the north county. Over the course of the first week of fires and evacuations Bonnie oversaw the feeding and sheltering of hundreds of evacuees. Job well done.
Jim DeMartini
Cloverdale
Matching funds from brewery
EDITOR: Due to the many fires in our communities, Bear Republic Brewing Co. will be donating 50 cents on every case of beer sold, for the next 30 days, to raise funds to help those affected by the devastating Sonoma County fires.
Many of our employees and family members have lost their homes and have little to rely on. We are reaching out to our wholesalers and asking for their support through matching funds up to 50 cents per case or a one time donation. We thank all our suppliers and distributors for their kind words and prayers. Thanks for your continued support during these difficult times and be safe.
The owners of Bear Republic Brewing Co.
Healdsburg
Another way to help
EDITOR: I am writing an urgent message to the Cloverdale community. The local Key Club has developed plans to help the fire victims in Sonoma County. These people around the county need our aid, and we are asking those of us who live in the Cloverdale community to provide support for the actions that Key Club wants to perform.
We have already put food collection barrels in both Grocery Outlet and Ray’s Food Place. We regularly work with the Redwood Empire Food Bank, and because of that association, we received an important message from them, which stated, “We are in dire need of ready-to-eat, non-perishable foods that we can provide to the evacuation centers immediately.” So, the food bank needs all the help it can get. All food donated will be transferred by us to them.
Tucker Morgan, Key Club
Cloverdale High School
Help us help others
EDITOR: We here, at Cloverdale Firehouse BBQ & Ribs, are in need of your help. Since the start of the fires that have devastated Sonoma County and surrounding areas, we have tried to come up with a way that we can help those in need. As a local business owner, it has pained me to watch the devastation and not try to reach out and do something for those affected.
I have teamed up with other local business owners, gathered sponsorship (some still pending), and we are trying to feed any of those affected by the fires free of charge. We are hoping to shoot for this upcoming weekend, October 20-22. If funding lasts longer than those days, we will continue to feed as many as we can until sponsorship runs out.
If you are interested in donating to the cause, please reach out. We are hoping to feed anywhere from 400-600 people affected, depending on the pending sponsorship. The menu will be limited, but we want to do our part and help in any way possible. We are reaching out to get the word out for us. Help us help those in need.
Rich McLennan, Cloverdale Firehouse BBQ & Ribs
Mass shootings: a perspective
EDITOR: The perpetrator; to identify the person in advance is highly improbable. The motive; a myriad of explanations that only seem to be evaluated after the shooting. The location; there is almost no limit to the locale. The victims; includes any person without consideration. The weapon; now, this can be controlled.
I have family and friends who hunt. Those who hunt deer do so on foot, tracking and patiently waiting for that buck to appear. They use bolt action rifles without scopes, yet are accomplished and successful hunters. They do have more than one rifle, but not an arsenal. I expect that the traditional gun owner is respectful of their gun ownership, frankly proud of it; that they exercise safety with respect to all firearms; would be proud to document their gun ownership; and that they, I believe, would advocate for a policy that provides for the elimination of automatic weapons or means to create automatic weapons.
Developing and enforcing such a policy would save innumerable lives and allow our law enforcement to narrow and direct their efforts on the villains. How do we see that such a policy is implemented?
Gene Valla
San Francisco/Healdsburg
Time to pitch in and help
EDITOR: The devastating fires that struck Sonoma County last week will have a lasting effect on our community. Healdsburg was spared from the destruction, and now it is time more than ever to pitch in and help those in need. More than 3,000 houses have burned across the county, straining an already limited availability of housing. Many residents, including first responders, teachers and health care workers need temporary housing as they begin to rebuild their lives.
This letter is a call to the residents and property owners of Healdsburg and surrounding county areas to help by making available any housing resources they may have. A new website run by local volunteers, NorCalFireResource.com, is now a resource center to connect those who need housing to those who have housing available.
Right now, if you need housing or have housing to offer, please email:
in**@no****************.com
with your information. The site coordinators will direct your needs and resources for proper display on the website.
In the last week, we have seen an amazing outpouring of assistance from the people of Healdsburg. We are all proud to live in a community filled with those who do not think twice about helping others. We have confidence that this spirit will continue; we will do what is necessary to help those among us who need their community now more than ever.
Shaun McCaffery
Healdsburg mayor
Housing is needed
EDITOR: As a Healdsburg resident and an active Santa Rosa city schools teacher, I write today to ask you for assistance in response to the tragic consequences of this past week’s Sonoma County fires. Before the fires, there was a local housing availability and affordable crisis in our town and our county. Many middle class wage earners — a group that includes our first responders, our teachers, our health care practitioners, our business communities’ workers — need a place to stabilize and continue their vital work caring for our community.
What I am appealing to is our Healdsburg neighbors who have the ability to rent out a home that may be vacant. This includes single-family homes, multi-family units, granny units, accessory units, cottages and what might have been previous to this crisis, a second home.
In order to open our hospitals, our schools, our local businesses and to begin the rebuilding, we need rental housing. More than 3,000 housing units were lost in the Santa Rosa city limits.
If you have a unit, a house to rent for short or long-term that you can rent during this severe crisis, please contact me: 707-695-1090 or
ma******************@gm***.com
.
Thank you for your consideration in this need to support one another.
Brigette Mansell
Healdsburg
