Our names are Alex and Zak Berrie from San Marino, CA. We’re raising funds for our friends Adam, Farris, and Grayson Rosen, whom we’ve known for nearly 20 years. The Rosens are quintessential urban homesteaders living in Altadena, on one of the blocks that the Eaton Fire spared while destroying homes all around them. Although their home still stands, the future feels uncertain for the Rosen family. The devastating fire burned almost all the homes two blocks north, west, and east of them. Even worse, the gale-force winds blew open French doors in their living room, causing substantial smoke and ash damage, rendering their home unlivable.

The Rosens have been avid gardeners for the decades that we’ve known them, sharing their home-grown produce with gleeful abandon. Organic heirloom tomatoes, kale, herbs, fruit trees, and berries are Adam’s passion. Earlier this year they added seven laying hens and built a custom chicken coop. During the fire, ash thick with carcinogens such as lead, arsenic, and asbestos rained down upon the Rosens’ yards. It is likely that the top two feet of soil - at a minimum - will need to be dug up and carted away. The chickens have been fostered at a friend’s in Burbank and gardening won’t be safe any time soon.

It is true that the Rosens were fortunate compared to so many other victims of the Eaton Fire. They at least have a home to go back to, eventually. But they will return scarred by the trauma of having to dispose of many of their beloved plants and their ash and smoke-damaged belongings. Our dear friends remain hopeful yet concerned about the future, and whether they can recreate the home and life they once knew before the fires.

Let us show them our love and support by providing funds to support their healing.