Tag Archives: Historical

More Than a Store: What Community Really Means After Disaster

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Richard and Add Beale were fossil-hunting in the area near Chinese Camp, off the road to Yosemite, about a decade ago when they noticed a ‘for sale’ sign. A few years later they sold their home and packed up their two children and moved to the town where they’ve become community icons.

The American Red Cross could not help communities recover from disasters without the help of community partners. In Chinese Camp, a historic small town outside Sonora that was devastated when a lightning-sparked fire swept through on September 2, 2025, one standout partnership included Richard and Add Beale, owners of the Chinese Camp Store.

Ten years ago, when the Beales first noticed the “for sale” sign on the run-down store and tavern on the road from Sonora to Yosemite, they could not have imagined they would be where they are today: the well-established owners of the store and serving as the Chinese Camp’s recovery hub from wildfires that destroyed 50 of the homes in a community that has only 150 residents.

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Hope and Humor: A Donut Dollie’s Legacy from World War II

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Written By: Monica Rodman

“I’m here for the boys,” Marguerite Holtgrieve told the soldier who would eventually become her husband.

It was 1945. Marguerite, who went by Maggie, was one of several thousand women who volunteered with the American Red Cross during World War II. The Red Cross had started a project to boost the morale of American servicemen abroad and give them connection to home while they fought overseas. Young ladies like Maggie joined a brigade of “Donut Dollies” who served coffee, donuts, and light entertainment out of converted GMC trucks outfitted with kitchens.

Stationed on an army base in Nancy, France, 26-year-old Maggie met Ardo Stocks the day after V-E day. The medic was recovering from a gunshot wound that would later earn him Bronze Star and Purple Heart military medals.

Maggie in her American Red Cross uniform
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