KERN RIVER VALLEY, Calif. (KERO) — 23ABC has partnered with multiple organizations to ensure the money raised by our campaign was used to effectively and directly aid those who lost property in the Borel Fire.
- The Borel Fire relief fundraiser was a weeks-long campaign to raise money for those impacted by the Borel Fire.
- The Borel Fire ended up being the largest fire in Kern County history, with over 60,000 acres burned.
- According to a damage assessment released by Kern County Fire Department, the Borel Fire completely destroyed 213 structures.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
“I've got a couple of different pots of money for immediate relief, for medium term recovery and for long-term rebuilding and the challenge is how do we deliver that effectively as possible to our neighbors in the Kern River Valley” said Aaron Falk.
Aaron Falk is the President of the Kern Community Foundation, a non-profit that matched the money raised through 23ABC’s Borel Fire Relief Fundraiser. Then the foundation started looking for organizations that could effectively use that money for relief.
“We’ve been running an open grant cycle for non-profits who are serving the people who are affected by the fire. Be Finally Free was one of the organizations that applied for the grants, they had the strongest application out of any of the ones in the group.”
Be Finally Free is a Bakerfield based non-profit that focuses on helping those with addiction. However, after the Borel Fire, Be Finally Free got involved in relief efforts - raising money to purchase gift cards then distributing them to those in need- speaking directly to those who were impacted by the fire.
“Through that we were able to start interviewing those who had lost their homes and people who had lost partial parts of their homes. And this just gave us a passion for what needed to be done up there,” said Debbie Ormonde, who works for Be Finally Free.
Be Finally Free came up with an action plan, detailing how they would provide assistance.
“They demonstrated that they could do the most with as much money as we were able to give them, and we want to provide direct relief, so I want money and gift cards and goods going directly in the hands of people up there,” Falk said.
Be Finally Free is working with those that have been impacted directly - providing them with gift cards to buy essentials.
“They need food, they need gas,” Ormonde said.
Ormonde says she was moved by talking to impacted families.
“It was like, okay, there’s no way that we cannot be here and not help these men and women and children and help them get necessary things that they need.”
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