One family won’t forget Red Cross’ shelter assistance
By Mauri Shuler
As the firestorm swept through the California wine country, the entire town of Calistoga was evacuated and many residents, including at least a thousand agricultural workers, drove to the Red Cross shelter in Napa.
Tom Freitas, a senior citizen, and his stepson, Mark Johnson, refer to each other as father and son. Mark said he brought his father to the Sonoma County Red Cross Service Center this morning because “The Red Cross can provide us help.”
Jamie Rosales lives in Oakmont, one of the Santa Rosa neighborhoods devastated by the wildfires. His neighbor woke him up at 1 a.m. Monday. They were told to leave and found a Red Cross shelter through word-of-mouth.
The volunteers at a Red Cross shelter find they often have a great deal in common. In fact, at the Santa Rosa Veterans Hall Shelter, the group that randomly came together to help evacuees found they had less than 6 degrees of separation among them.
“We didn’t even notice faces; we didn’t know who was there. I remember seeing scrubs, but beyond that nothing; we were focused on the job we had to do,” said Kyle Parkinson, Shelter Manager for the Sonoma/Marin Fairgrounds Shelter.