Fire-ravaged Paradise gets an early Christmas gift from local teachers. Nearly 7,500 books donated to California community

By Ed Martin, Editor
Local educators from the Lemoore Elementary School District donated nearly 4,700 books to the schools of Paradise, a town devastated by fire.
Local educators from the Lemoore Elementary School District donated nearly 4,700 books to the schools of Paradise, a town devastated by fire.
Photo Courtesy Erin Vogel

As the thousands of residents of Paradise, a picturesque community in Northern California, survey the charred remnants of the place they once called home, some may have silently pondered how – and if – the small town, located 100 miles north of Sacramento, can somehow arise from the ashes.

The people of Paradise, while still reeling from their loss, can rest assured that there are Good Samaritans who want to help as they begin the effort to rebuild their once beautiful community.

The devastation caused by the November 9 fire was nearly complete. According to local officials, the Camp Fire damaged or destroyed an estimated 7,600 structures.

The town burned to the ground, virtually disappearing. But help can come in different ways.

One such effort was recently mounted by a local Lemoore school district that collected and delivered books to the devastated Paradise School District.  

The 4,700 books were loaded into a U-Haul van and delivered to Chico, California, a community adjacent to Paradise.
The 4,700 books were loaded into a U-Haul van and delivered to Chico, California, a community adjacent to Paradise.
Photo Courtesy Erin Vogel

“As you are aware most of the elementary schools burned down, and many teachers lost their homes as well,” said Lemoore Unified Elementary School District Superintendent Cheryl Hunt. “The Lemoore district teachers and staff believed this drive would support replenishing classroom libraries and school libraries.”

The district-wide effort has paid off handsomely. Hunt reported that the district’s staff had collected a total of 7,400 books, all of them bound for Paradise.

Paradise school officials said that of the district’s nine schools, four were destroyed, and all but one has significant damage. Students who attend Paradise schools, many of whom also lost homes, returned to school about three weeks after the burning fires.

School officials discussed ways of helping. Lemoore teachers and staff did their part, and it resulted in an effort by those same teachers, retired teachers, parents and others, all of whom mounted the district-wide book drive, collecting used and new books to donate to the Paradise schools.

Books, after all, are the essence of education, and Erin Vogel, a Cinnamon Elementary School third-grade teacher, took the lead in the book drive, organizing the effort and then convincing Lemoore’s Al’s U-Haul to donate a trailer to deliver the books to Chico, a short distance from Paradise.

“We collected gently used books and new textbooks, and we ended up getting 7,400,” said Vogel. “We did it over three weeks. We kept taking books until the moment we left (for Chico).”

Vogel didn’t want to deal with money, and she decided that books were a viable option considering the level of damage inflicted on the Paradise School District. “They don’t have books, and as a kid, you can’t really practice reading if you don’t have books,” she insisted. “Why don’t we just do a book drive? If we do a book drive, all we have to do is clean out our bookcases.”

Vogel and her friend Tim hauled the cache of books to Chico, delivering them in person. They arrived on Saturday, Dec. 15 to meet the superintendent’s secretary at Chico’s Calvary Chapel Church to unload. There just wasn’t any available space left in the school district.

Church officials and volunteers helped unload the truck.

One of the significant challenges in providing donations was the lack of space, due to the destructive nature of the fire. The church – where they wound up storing the books – is in an old movie theater, and Vogel and volunteers carried the books up two flights of stairs.

“They didn’t have any storage,” recalled Vogel. “Everything had been burned down. Little did we know we got to carry them up the stairs.”

The Lemoore volunteers, once the books were delivered, drove through Paradise – what was left – viewing first-hand the devastation. Vogel told The Leader that the fire destroyed about 95 percent of the community.

“It was awful. It literally looks like a bomb had been dropped. It was total devastation. It was rubble with a fireplace sticking up. Everything was burned.”

She saw people sifting through ashes. “I don’t know how they’re going to rebuild.”

“We are blessed to work with an amazing staff who were able to show kindness and compassion to another community,” said Hunt. “The generosity of our families was overwhelming.”

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