Support Jerry and Delane Sims After Hills Fire Loss

An update from Jerry and Delane:

Hello Everyone!

Words cannot fully express our gratitude to each and every one of you who has shown such incredible generosity through your prayers, donations, text, calls, emails and visits. Your overwhelming support has been nothing short of phenomenal.

Thanks to all of your support, we are now comfortably settled in temporary housing. We even hosted Thanksgiving and reunited with family we hadn’t seen since the fire. However, we’ve been informed that it may take a year or more for us to return home.

Sadly, our home has also been broken into several times (7 times to date), and some of the items that were not destroyed were stolen. This has undoubtedly added insult to injury.

I’ve faced many obstacles in my life, but this fire hit us particularly hard. After consulting with God, I understand that I needed to truly feel this experience—not just for myself, but for others who may be going through similar situations.

Despite everything we have been blessed to continue helping the women in our DNNC Steps to Success program. We recently assisted a single mother facing eviction and were able to help prevent that from happening! Additionally, we maintained our tradition of giving away a car, and one deserving single mom is over the moon about now having transportation for herself and her child. Even in the midst of our storm, we are grateful to continue being a blessing to others.

A special thank you goes to our daughter, Sherrita “SherriAnn” Cole, for creating a GoFundMe campaign for us. We didn't realize how crucial this would be!

My husband, Jerry, and I are inspired by all of you and remain committed to helping others through life’s trials. While it was incredibly challenging for me to accept help, I am now more convinced than ever of our need for one another. When we stand together, we are stronger.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you to this incredible community of care. Blessings to you all today and always!

Much love,

Delane

CBS News Covers Damage to Sims Home

(click link for News Coverage)

My name is Sherrita Cole and I'm creating this GoFundMe for my loving and supportive parents, Jerry and Delane Sims, who just lost their home of 30 years to an Oakland Hills fire this past Friday, October 18, 2024.

The fire started on the side of the 580 East Freeway but quickly spread due to high winds. In total, 15 acres and two structures were burned with 500 residents evacuated. Unfortunately, one of those structures was my parents' home, and although it has been devastating to lose my childhood home and priceless pictures, we are grateful that the damage to our home seemed to have spared the rest of our block.

We are also most grateful that my father, Jerry Sims, was able to escape the fire with his life as he was asleep and was awakened in time by an explosion that blew out our living room window. While we mourn the loss of items, we are so thankful for his life being spared.

Jerry and Delane are Oakland natives and pillars within the community as well as the matriarch and patriarch of our family.

Jerry retired from his work as a Unix System Administrator for over 30 years and was a mentor to several young men through his work with the Young Scholars program, with the aim to help young men of color go to 4-year universities. Today, he uses his time to drive special needs children to and from school throughout the Oakland Unified School District.

Delane Sims is the owner of Delane's Natural Nail Care, which was originally based in Oakland but has become a staple in the San Leandro community. Her emphasis on natural nails came from her desire to educate the community about the risks of the chemicals used in acrylic nails as well as the need for exemplary sanitary practices to prevent the spread of infections and diseases. That desire led her to work alongside podiatrists to become a Medical Pedicurist, where her focus is to treat high-risk patients such as those with diabetes to make sure they have the foot care they need to prevent infections and amputations. Her history of helping her community is most evident in her two non-profit organizations that she created over the years, Senior Moments and DNNC Steps to Success.

Senior Moments was created and fostered from the loving bond she had with her father, Andrew Hatch, who lived a long, healthy, and full life of 117 years. He always accredited his long time on this earth to the loving bond he had with his daughter. With that in mind, Delane came to understand the importance of community, support, and loving interactions for the seniors that were suffering in silence. She made monthly visits to several senior centers to give presentations on readily available resources and to offer a kind word or lend a listening ear. Outside of the resources available, Delane routinely used her own personal funds to get seniors the groceries they needed and often used her own transportation to help them go to medical appointments and run errands.

DNNC Steps to Success works towards improving family stability and quality of life for women and single parents. They give scholarships annually to attend manicurist school to find a path of entrepreneurship and develop life skills to become successful business owners that can in turn help to enrich their family and communities.

Delane is indeed a real life Fairy God-Mother for many or as I like to say, an Earthy Angel.

My Dad and Mom are not only wonderful people in the community but they are the pillars of our family. They are the most amazing example I have EVER seen of a patient, loving, and supportive husband and wife. Their home was not only the home I grew up in but also that of my 8 siblings and their 10 grandchildren. This home is the place of our annual Thanksgiving celebration, the home of countless birthday celebrations, and so many more fond memories.

They are always supporting everyone around them and now I humbly ask that the community supports them in their time of need. Even now, my mother wants people to give to DNNC Steps to Success to help others in need, but I've reminded her of the advice she has given so many, and that is to, "put the oxygen mask on yourself first." I'm asking for these funds to help them take time off from work to handle various tasks as well as assist with the unforeseen and mounting expenses.

Thank you for reading. I pray you can contribute to this fund and if not, please share with a friend.

May God Bless You

Jerry and Delane Sims

One of the pictures spared in the fire. Seen left to right: (Sister) Rue Mapp, (Grand-Daughter) Samara Cole-Mercado, Delane Sims, (Daughter) Sherrita Cole, (God-Daughter) Tiffany Rose, (Niece) Delaney Arwen Kreber-Mapp