Pasadena Educational Foundation Hosts School Community Recovery Event Tonight

The Pasadena Educational Foundation (PEF) will host “Celebrating Our Schools: A Night of Resilience and Hope” on Tuesday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Pasadena City Hall Courtyard, located at 100 N. Garfield Ave., Pasadena, CA 91101. The event aims to honor the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) community’s resilience following the Eaton Fire in January 2025 that damaged five Pasadena schools and displaced more than 14,000 students and staff.

“We decided we wanted to go forward with it,” said Patrick Conyers, Executive Director of the Pasadena Educational Foundation. “We’re in a position where the money that we’ll be raising that night, will be going toward our Eaton Fire Response Fund. So it’s really about celebrating the resiliency of this community, the resilience of Pasadena Unified School District, and most notably the students, teachers, and staff that, in some cases have lost everything, but have continued making good progress.”

The foundation has been a critical partner in the school district’s recovery efforts since the early morning of January 9, when fires were still burning.

PEF immediately coordinated with PUSD Superintendent Dr. Blanco to address housing, food insecurity, and clothing needs for affected families.

“We met with the superintendent of PUSD, Dr. Blanco, on the morning of Thursday, January 9th when the fires were still burning, and she asked if PEF could help them get back on their feet, and we, of course, said yes,” Conyers explained.

Drawing on experience gained during the pandemic, PEF quickly established a donation framework for crisis response.

“Thankfully, since we’d gone through the experience of the pandemic alongside the district, we already had the framework in place of how to respond to a crisis,” Conyers noted.

The organization reactivated a donation page on their website, which became the basis of their response fund.

To date, the foundation has given “in the range of $1.8 million in direct aid to teachers, staff, and families of PUSD students” who have “lost their homes, who have been displaced or have suffered a significant financial harm from the fires,” according to Conyers, who has led PEF since 2011 through expansions in community programming, teacher grants, and disaster response.

The Ballmer Group provided important early support with a $1 million donation to PEF as part of its broader $15 million wildfire recovery initiative. Conyers spoke with Nina Reir from the Ballmer Group on Sunday, January 12th, just days after the fire. This funding was strategically distributed alongside donations to other organizations including the Pasadena City College Foundation, the Greater LA Education Foundation, and the LA USD Education Foundation.

“What I’m most grateful to the Ballmer Group for is that they gave their seal of approval by making that donation to us,” said Conyers. “By doing that, I think it encouraged other philanthropists to follow suit, and that’s helped us to raise the kinds of money that we needed to raise to be able to be impactful on the community.”

The April 29 event will feature student performances and recognize educators while raising additional funds for ongoing recovery efforts. PUSD implemented emergency closures followed by a phased reopening beginning in late January.

In addition to providing immediate relief, PEF’s recovery work has been complemented by partnerships with organizations like Instacart, which launched a “Classroom Carts” donation platform enabling users nationwide to purchase school supplies for fire-affected Pasadena schools.

The District deployed over 50 licensed mental health professionals to address trauma and help restore normalcy for students and staff. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported on March 24, 2025, that PUSD has filed a lawsuit against Southern California Edison for its alleged role in sparking the Eaton Fire.

The recovery effort has seen extensive community involvement, with over 1,000 workers and more than 200 volunteers helping to clean campuses and provide services to families affected by the disaster. PEF and PUSD are pursuing infrastructure resilience, mental health support, and continued philanthropic engagement as part of their long-term recovery roadmap.

“I think that the most gratifying thing has been how many people have turned to us in this moment of crisis knowing that we can get things done,” Conyers said. “We’ve never, until the present moment been an organization that’s been in the direct aid business. It’s just not been who we are. But in this moment, that’s who we needed to be, and we’ve done that.”

For more information about the event or to support the recovery efforts, community members can visit the PEF website at pasedfoundation.org or call (626) 396-3625.