The rain held off long enough on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025 for the Wildfire Relief fundraiser hosted by Vice Mayor Freddie Puza to proceed as planned – outdoors, under cloudy skies. The beneficiary of the event, the Culver-Palms YMCA had a table for people to bring donation of paper products, clothing and toiletries for the survivors of the Palisades and Eaton Wildfires. Taylor Fine Arts, another sponsor of the evening, was there to support the event.
The program began with Emcees Meleni Mirzakhanian and Isaac Cobb taking the microphone to thank the Vice Mayor for hosting. Meghan Sahli-Wells, former Culver City Mayor and co-host spoke about her family losing a house in Laurel Canyon to a wildfire. “This was before the 911 system was up, and my dad had such a hard time getting through to the fire department, by the time they arrived, it was too late. Eighteen houses were lost in that fire, and while that is a lot, we think of the thousands of homes and businesses lost in these last weeks. It’s almost beyond imagining.”
A benediction was offered by Josh Bell, a Young Men’s Division Leader from the SGI-USA Buddhist Organization. Bell, also an alumni of CCHS, held a moment of reflection for the peace available to every heart, and the collective efforts for world peace that every individual can add into. “We hold compassion for those suffering, and keep our hearts open to hope for future.”
A gorgeous vocal performance from Angel Bonilla, an Emmy-nominated recording artist, and the first trans contestant on NBC’s The Voice moved the crowd, and then Lori Siegel, the Executive Director of the Culver-Palms YMCA took the stage to discuss the enormous donation and distribution efforts taking place at the Y since the fires broke out. Siegel noted that the demand for their long-standing grocery distribution efforts had risen since the fires as well. “We all know people who have lost houses, lost businesses, but at this point we can’t even estimate how many people are really impacted by this disaster.”
Alec de Mattos and Seth Miller, members of the Culver City Firefighter Strike Team, spoke to the crowd about the CCFD’s efforts to support Los Angeles firefighters, with Miller emphasizing that “The first 48 hours we were out there, we didn’t even have a chance to look up, it was so intense. We were just focused on the area around us…we didn’t even have any information on what was going on, or how big this fire was…you all knew more about what was happening that we did.”
Alexey Steele, one of Culver City’s former Artist Laureates, was there to do on-site portrait painting of the firefighters, with the hope of being able to turn that into a larger work of art. Steele said “It would be great to have this as a bigger artwork, a pubic mural, something to really honor the work that our firefighters do.” The Culver Arts Foundation will be the presiding agency for the future of the portraits painted at the event.
Jeff Morrical, another artist who contributed to the occasion, showed a hanging mobile abstract sculpture in shades of sunset – yellow, orange, red – that reflected the moment with an incandescent grace.
The program finished out with a rousing rap duo, THEM KIDS, who sang and danced with enthusiasm, and closed with a rap called “Kindness” that brought together the spirit of the crowd, the donations and the benefactors.
Hokey Pokey Los Angeles was there serving ice cream, and as the donations table stacked higher and higher, Brooke Miyamoto of the Y and the attending firefighters had dozens of tris back and forth to pack the donations for transportation.
Puza sent out a “thank you” note to the attendees this morning, saying “Thanks to your contributions, we were able to collect hundreds of essential items and financial donations. These donations will provide much-needed relief and hope to those affected by the devastating wildfires.”
***There is still time to donate to those affected by the wildfires, go to: https://www.supportccfd.org/donate-contact
Judith Martin-Straw
Photo caption – L to R – CCFD’s Seth Miller, VM Freddy Puza, and CCFD Alec de Mattos
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source culvercitycrossroads.com ’
