The Los Angeles Wildfire Relief Drive was put on by ASB from Jan. 21 to Jan. 29. ASB partnered with the San Diego Food Bank and Los Angeles Regional Food Bank in order to help support students and their families who suffered damages from the California wildfires earlier this month.
ASB collected different food and drink items such as energy bars, canned tuna and chicken, raisins, dried fruit trail mix, peanut butter crackers, cheese crackers, 100% juice boxes and individual cereal boxes. They also collected a variety of other necessities for donation, such as water, diapers and baby wipes, in hopes of providing a large range of resources to those who lost them in the fires.
Henri Tanghe (11), ASB Co-Commissioner of Philanthropy, explains how the ideas for the drive came about.
“The LA fires started in early January, and since we are a really engaged student body, we actually got a lot of messages from students and parents who wanted to host a clothing drive,” Tanghe said. “I run everything human resource related, and since this was in high demand, we organized this drive.”
In efforts to encourage and reward students for participation in the drive, the fifth period class with the most donations won a VG Donut & Bakery celebration.
English 11 and AP English Literature teacher Olivia Bogert’s fifth period English 11 class took first place, collecting more than 30 bags of food.
“The fire itself is really close to me, and my aunt and uncle lost their homes,” Bogert said. “Just the little things have been so helpful to those that need it, and I asked my students to each bring in at least five. I am really overwhelmed with the tremendous support I got.”
With ASB’s ongoing community outreach efforts, Tanghe explains how the process usually goes.
“We usually do two food drives with the San Diego Food Bank, one being the ‘Fall Canned Food Drive,’” Tanghe said. “ASB hosts all of our drives and works with organizations, since we can’t just do it ourselves. Normally, we collect all the stuff, and then food banks will come with a giant truck for pickup. This time, since demand is so high, and they don’t have enough people coming in, we had to do the transportation as well. I just finished loading up my Jeep filled with boxes of food, on the way to the distribution center in Miramar.”
At the end of the drive, ASB totalled 582 lbs of food and amenities donated in the past week for the program. Corinne Gilkey (11), ASB Co-Commissioner of Philanthropy, reflected on the successful result of the drive, and shared her appreciation for the support.
“It was so amazing getting to see everyone at Torrey Pines come together to support another community,” Gilkey said. “I was so impressed that in a few short weeks our school was able to donate over 500 lbs of resources to those affected in L.A. I’m proud to be part of a school that takes helping others seriously.”
Stella Phillips (11), ASB Commissioner for ASB-at-Large, shared how meaningful the drive is to her.
“We had a lot of family and friends in L.A., it hit kinda close to me, and a lot in Maui, and I know the feeling of losing a house,” Phillips said. “Even small actions help, and I really enjoy helping my community — it’s really rewarding to me.”
