Woolsey Fire relief effort launched on Facebook

Networking through social media is another way for the public to help survivors of the Woolsey Fire.

“The response to the Woolsey Fire Relief has been amazing,” said Robin Taylor. “I have been inundated by family and friends and I have my UCSB sorority sisters…everybody has responded.”

Taylor, a resident of Westlake Village and UCSB alumni, set up the Woolsey Fire Relief’ site on Facebook on Day 2 of the Woolsey Fire, when friends and neighbors lost their homes. The icon shows two hands clasping another.

“Our city was under siege starting with the mass shootings and then the fire,” Taylor said. “I was taught to be of action.”

Users can scroll down the Facebook page and see photos of some of the people impacted, including the Shields family, a mother and two children. And, Patricia Conklin, a grandmother.

The Woolsey Fire Relief site links to APP.MOMCLONE.COM, created by Taylor’s friend and UCSB alumni Julie Farrell. It allows the user to purchase gift cards for those families and people in need.

“Family number one: A woman nine months pregnant and her husband, needing diapers, 0-3 months,” Taylor said. “Another family with five children. We need all the help we can get.”

Taylor credits 805 Runaways in Ventura County for adopting a disabled woman by the name of Wendy.

“Wendy came to my house to pick up her envelope,” Taylor said. “She was disabled, her walker was burned. She was in a wheelchair, the feet of her chair were burned. I got to tell her that the local running club, 805 Runaways, adopted her and paid for all of her gift cards.”

Taylor said so far she’s raised more than $30,000 dollars and collected thousands of gift cards to dispense to those in need of basic necessities.

Her effort is championed by Tara Haaland-Ford, who helped head up the SB Support Network in the days following our back-to-back disasters, the Thomas Fire and Montecito mud and debris flow.

The group helped put people in temporary homes and jobs and made it possible for cancer patients to resume their chemotherapy treatments, among other life-changing assistance.

Click here if you would like to donate to the Woolsey Fire Relief effort.

The Woolsey Fire Relief Facebook site can be found at https://www.facebook.com/Woolsey-Fire-Relief-1183716938446493.