Carla & Bruce Bates Family Rebuild

During better days, my nephew proudly displays his award-winning art. He is now processing the loss with his family. Breaks our hearts....

My sister and her family lost their home yesterday at 29956 Cuthbert Road,  Malibu in the Woolsey fire.....with everything they owned in it. Our hearts are broken because they were the heartbeat of our family and opened their home to everyone. 

The entire family is very hard working...here's a little bit about them: 

Carla, her husband Bruce, her daughter Jade, and her son Declan, lived next door to her mother-in-law Bonnie (whose home also burned to the ground) for many years. The family has two beloved older dogs Dolly and Buddy and Bonnie has one dog. 

Their lives are in Malibu. As some of you know, Carla taught art in her home to the local children and is deeply saddened that many of her students lost their homes too. She lost all her paintings hung throughout their house and all the art supplies. Thousand of hours of work gone but she plans to spend the next several years repainting her favorites.  It may even be therapeutic for her.

Bruce works locally as a psychologist for troubled boys at a local detention center, which suffered fire damage. In fact, on the day of the evacuations, he was busy transporting these boys by bus to escape the fire.  Bonnie works at Pepperdine and Declan is a student at Malibu High (he also loves to paint, do surf photography/videography, and teaches tennis and surfing to youth). Jade graduated from UCLA in May and works at local Cielo Winery.  Since they are so tied to the community, they would like to continue their lives in Malibu.

We send prayers to those who who have lost their lives and homes in these terrible fires and are grateful to the firefighters who continue to battle such destructive winds and flames to save both. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this and for contributing to help the Bates family recover from this devastating event.