Here is an update and thank you note from Rick:

Hello everyone! Almost three weeks ago, I was on my way to work at 7:00 and I noticed a plume of smoke coming from the Feather River canyon. It was a red flag warning day and we hadn't had any measurable rain since May. I texted Kelly a picture with the words uh-oh. I wasn't very concerned at this point and drove to Oroville to pick up a client. By 8:15 the smoke was massive, black and growing quickly burning toward Paradise. I dropped my client back off and raced for home. I arrived to a sky that looked almost like night and Kelly and the boys were already gathering some clothes. We have evacuated so many times, that I had the mentality of "we're going to be camping out somewhere else for while" and I just grabbed my camping boxes. I grabbed 4 days of clothes and a couple of random things and sent Kelly and the boys to safety. I stayed to assist my 81 year old neighbor who was waiting for her husband to return from gassing up their other car. She was reluctant to leave without him but I told her to text her husband to just evacuate from where ever he was. I threw her things in her car and made her leave before me, even though she was crying and hysterical and didn't want to leave without him. I took one last picture of my house and left to the sound of my neighbor's propane tanks exploding and flames approaching.

The drive out was not fun and was very scary-we all had different experiences that day and are lucky we got out. I'll be thinking about it for long time. It took three hours to get to Kelly and the boys at my friend Darin Wood's house.  We were gettin settled in and then we got evacuated from Durham at 9:00 pm as the fire had jumped the highway and was coming for us again. At this point Kelly took the boys to the Bay area and I stayed with some other people in a town called Orland. It was a very intense day unlike anything I've experienced. Kelly, myself and the kids headed to Washington to stay with my parents three days after the fire and stayed through the Thanksgiving holiday. It is difficult to describe the feeling of everything I have acquired through my life being gone. The house Kelly and I just bought and had worked hard every weekend to make our home gone....

We spent a lot of time planning our next moves and decided to buy an RV. We got an amazing hookup, through a friend of my parents, (Portland theater community/burning man Lemonade camp) Don Spear. After a couple of weeks staying with family we picked up our new home on wheels and I drove it 500 miles to Corning CA to an RV park at a casino. This whole thing is so new and unreal I haven't really begun to process the enormity of my own loss on top of the other 10,000 households, and the rest of my town being gone. I don't think we will rebuild and are looking at buying another property and staying in the RV until then. Rentals are all gone and my community of friends are now spread out over a 50 mile area.

I have been so consumed with the process I haven't taken the time to reach out to people and say thank you. 

Sooo much thanks to my family in Washington who took us in and took care of us!

Thank you for those reaching out to see how we are doing, thank you for all the positive feedback in the comments. Thank you for the relationships we made over 20 years ago at MMR. I'm not yet back to work but that is coming soon. The reality of living in an RV, after just buying our house in July is still sinking in. I know that we are more fortunate than others who didn't have insurance (although they are really dragging their feet) and those who died, burned alive, without even a warning. Lastly, I appreciate Julian and Mark for putting this together for us. Every bit will help us to rebuild a new life somewhere, even though we don't have any idea what that will look like. I guess it was our turn for a new challenge, life has a way of doing that....

Thank you to everyone! I am humbled...

-- 
Rick Magazine
Wraparound/BHC
Youth for Change

PO Box 1476
Paradise, CA 95967
530.872.4128
[email redacted]


If you are reading this, you probably know Rick Magazine.  Rick has dedicated his life to helping children and adolescents figure out who they are and develop into better versions of themselves.  Recently he and his partner Kelly have been working at a non-profit in the Chico area called Youth 4 Change.  Rick, Kelly, and their boys, put their life savings into a down payment for a house 5 months ago, finally achieving a major life goal... not an easy task on the wages paid by non-profits in this sector.  Their home was in Paradise, CA and was totally destroyed, along with everything they owned, by the Camp Fire. 
While there is never a good time for your house to burn down, this timing was especially bad because Rick and Kelly put everything into their down payment.  Also, their non-profit lost several facilities, so they are out of work for a while.  Although they do have insurance for their house, they are struggling to figure out where to live and how to afford it until they can rebuild or figure out what is next...  If you are in a position to help them, anything would be greatly appreciated.  If you know Rick, then you know he is truly a great man and that you are lucky to have encountered him in your life.  This is your chance to show him you appreciate his contributions to your life and to society.  Thanks for your time and consideration.
Best,
Julian Kearns and Mark Breslow