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Published by Acción Latina Marzo 12-25, 2015
Vol. 45 No. 5
Community raises $180,000 for fire victims La comunidad recauda $180,000 para víctimas de incendio
Milagro Rodríguez y Lucía Flores lloran luego de que se les comunicó que recibirían dinero de una colecta organizada por Zachary Crockett y la Salvation Army Mission Corps. Ambas fueron desalojadas de sus hogares luego del incendio ocurrido en el edificio ubicado en las calles 22 y Misión. Milagro Rodriguez and Lucia Flores cry after being told that they were going to be given money from a fundraiser organized by Zachary Crockett at the Salvation Army Mission Corps in San Francisco on Thursday Feb. 26. Rodriguez and Flores were displaced from their homes after the four-alarm fire on 22nd and Mission. Photo Joel Angel Juárez
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ack Crockett was riding his bike home from work on Jan. 28 when he passed by the building at Mission and 22nd street engulfed in flames. “I saw this sea of people filming from their phones and I started thinking about all the families, all the people who lived there,” said the 27-year-old Crockett, who writes for the Priceonomics blog. That same night, he started a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising $2,000. He just wanted to do something to help these families. “I woke up the next morning and it was at $8,000 or $10,000,” he said. By the end of Jan. 29, his campaign had reached $35,000. Over the course of 29 days, more than 2,200 people donated to the campaign that raised $180,545. And finally, on Feb. 26, Crockett got to help those families by personally handing them the checks from the fundraiser. After GoFundMe and another processing company charged their fees, $165,606 was left for the 27 displaced families. They received different amounts depending on the number of family members and their ages.
Among the displaced were roommates sharing apartments who counted as one family, as well as families of five with three young children. When the fundraiser reached the sixfigure range, Crockett decided to involve local nonprofit Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) to help manage and divide the money fairly. “They say it takes a village, but sometimes it takes one person,” said Gabriel Medina, MEDA policy manager. MEDA met with the families, the majority of whom are Latin American immigrants, to help them make financial plans and build credit.
“Thank God for all [of the] people’s help,” said Nancy Caro, one of the victims of the fire. She received a check for her family on Feb. 26 at the Salvation Army shelter on Valencia Street, where the displaced families were being housed. Caro found housing on Feb. 20. Her new residence is bigger and it has a yard, but it’s on Treasure Island and it’s more expensive. No matter where she lives, Caro still considers the Mission her neighborhood. Her son goes to school there, and she and her husband work there. But with the commute taking over an hour, she
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hopes to find a place in the Mission again. “Every day I do some shopping here,” Caro said with a smile. With the money they received, the families said they would replace what they lost in the fire. “We need to buy everything,” Caro said. “We have only the place for now.” As of Feb. 25, the San Francisco Human Services Agency had found residences for all of the displaced people, said John A. McKnight, director of emergency and disaster services at The Salvation Army. The majority of these new
l 28 de enero, Zach Crockett regresaba en bicicleta a su casa, cuando pasó frente al edificio ubicado en las calles Misión y 22 que estaba envuelto en llamas. “Vi un mar de gente filmando con sus teléfonos y pensaba en todas las familias, todas las personas que vivían allí”, dice Crockett, de 27 años de edad, quien escribe para el blog Priceonomics. Esa misma noche Crockett lanzó una campaña en GoFundMe con el objetivo de recaudar $2,000. Su objetivo era hacer algo para ayudar a esas familias. “Cuando me desperté a la mañana siguiente se habían recaudado $8,000 ó $10,000”, dijo. Al 29 de enero, su campaña había recaudado $35,000. A lo largo de 29 días, más de 2,000 personas hicieron donaciones que resultaron en la recaudación de $180,545. Finalmente, el 26 de febrero, Crockett logró ayudar a estas familias al entregarles personalmente los cheques de la recaudación de fondos. Después de que GoFundMe y otras compañías cobraran sus gastos administrativos, quedaron $165,606 disponibles para las familias desplazadas. Cada familia recibió sumas distintas según el número de integrantes y sus edades. Entre los desplazados se encontraban compañeros de piso
See fire, page 4
Vea incendio, página 8
Zachary Crockett hace el anuncio a los antiguos residentes del edificio incendiado en las calles 22 y Misión. Crockett recaudó dinero para las familias desplazadas cuyos hogares quedaron destruidos tras el incendio. Zachary Crockett makes an announcement to former residents of the burned down building on 22nd and Mission streets at the Salvation Army Mission Corps in San Francisco on Thursday night (Feb. 26, 2015). Crockett fundraised money for the displaced families whose homes burned down in January in a fouralarm fire. Photo Joel Angel Juárez
Elisabetta Silvestro
Elisabetta Silvestro