Guest Opinion | PCC President Dr. José A. Gómez: Dr. King Asked the Question. One Year After the Eaton Fire, We’re Still Answering It.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'”

I’ve thought about that question every day for the past year.

On January 7, 2024, the Eaton Fire tore through our community. It destroyed more than 9,000 structures, damaged thousands more, and claimed 19 lives. Thousands of families were displaced. When I walked through campus the next morning, the air was thick with the smell of smoke and fire, and heavy with ash. We immediately opened one of our parking lots as a hub of hope, a gathering place where people who needed support could meet people who wanted to help. Our campus became an anchor when our community needed us most.

Some of them were our students. Some were our faculty and staff. All of them were our neighbors.

Dr. King’s question hung in that ash-filled air: What are you doing for others?

One year later, here’s where we stand.

Last week, Pasadena City College held a groundbreaking ceremony for a new construction training facility that will prepare students with the skills to help rebuild the homes and businesses we lost. Immediately following the ceremony, we partnered with San Gabriel Valley Habitat for Humanity for a community build right here on campus. Students, faculty, staff, and community members put on hard hats and safety glasses. Together we built wall panels that will help rebuild a home destroyed in the fire.

I stood alongside students, neighbors, and survivors building panels for someone else’s home. Some in that group may have lost their own. Across our campus, I see the same spirit. Students who were displaced by the fire are now enrolled in our Wildland Fire Academy, learning to protect other communities from what they survived.

That’s what doing for others looks like.

Every day at PCC, we work in service to our neighbors. Our Construction Management program is training the workforce that will rebuild Dena. Our Small Business Development Center is helping fire-affected business owners navigate insurance, permits, and recovery loans. Our students are serving as inaugural College Corps Fellows, helping with recovery efforts across the San Gabriel Valley. Our Wildland Fire Academy prepares the next generation of first responders.

This is who we are, focused now more than ever on our community’s most urgent needs. The fire didn’t change our mission. It clarified it.

We could not do any of this without our community. In the year since the fire, I have witnessed generosity I will never forget. Our Board of Trustees led with vision and resolve, clearing the path for us to act quickly and boldly. Donors gave without being asked. Volunteers showed up without being called. Alumni returned to help. Neighbors who had lost everything still found ways to help others who had lost more.

Our community showed us its heart.

But here’s what I need you to know: the work is not finished. Not even close.

Families are still displaced. Businesses are still shuttered. Students are still struggling with trauma and loss. The rubble has been cleared from many lots, but rebuilding takes years, not months. The national news cameras have left. The world has moved on. But here, the destruction remains, and our neighbors still need us. Now it’s up to us.

Today is Martin Luther King Day, a day dedicated to service. It’s also one year since the Eaton Fire. That timing feels right.

So I have one request: Don’t stop now.

When you give, give to fire recovery. When you vote, vote for policies that support displaced families and rebuilding efforts. When you plan, plan with Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre in mind. When you speak up, speak up for our neighbors who are still finding their footing. When you have time to volunteer, there are still homes to build and families to serve.

Dr. King taught us that the measure of our character is found in how we respond when things are hard, not when they’re easy. This past year, Pasadena City College and our entire community answered his enduring question with action, with service, with presence.

Now we must answer it again. And keep answering it.

That’s where we stand. Right here, with our community, for as long as it takes.

José A. Gómez is President of Pasadena City College and a resident of Pasadena.