A Day Full of Neighbors

Hundreds of families and children gathered on the school yard at Don Benito Fundamental School in Upper Hastings Ranch Monday for a local community resource fair, one of a number of such events held over the President’s Day Weekend.

According to organizer and neighborhood block captain Patricia Hamada-Vahdat, “This came about from losing my own home and seeing everyone struggling. I jwanted to bring a little bit of joy and figured February, the month of love, was a great opportunity to do it.”

“So I started to put something together and then one neighbor said they would like to participate, and thwn another did,” she said. “And it went from 40 people to about, I was told, about 400, but then somebody counted the food and it was about a thousand people who came through here today.”

The event featured representatives from multiple agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency with computer resources, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Also on hand were representatives from the Pasadena Police Department, Fire Department, City Planners office, and local political representatives, as well as two food trucks affiliated with World Central Kitchen, now a central figure in the recovery and rebuilding effort.

While residents in Upper Hastings cope with both the loss of over 80 homes and numerous others left yellow-tagged or uninhabitable, Mayor Victor Gordo said at the event, “This is Pasadena. This is what we do in the most difficult times. We don’t stay away from one another. We come together and support one another.”

“It’s people coming together, and yeah, being sad together,” he continued, “reminiscing about their neighborhoods and the homes that they lost, but at the same time committing to work together to bring it back.”

Asked about the community’s mood a month after the fire, Gordo offered, “It’s a combination of sadness, frustration, and an eagerness to get back and rebuild. All of those things, all of these emotions going on all at once.”

“But again,” Gordo stressed,  “the overwhelming feeling is that people want to be back. The rest of us, those that are fortunate enough to not have been affected, we have a responsibility, and we will meet that responsibility to help our neighbors.”