By now you may have read or heard about the massive wildfire that swept through a Boulder suburb here on Thursday. 35,000 people were evacuated, and preliminary estimates are that 991 homes were destroyed and 127 damaged. That is over 1100 families impacted. It was a shocking and traumatic event for our community, still recovering from the mass shooting at the King Soopers grocery store in March 2020.
Thank you for all of your messages of concern. Our business and our home are on the North side of Boulder so we were safe. All of our staff are safe – nobody lived in the fire zone. Our oldest son lives on the boundary of the evacuation zone so he was witness to the whole thing, and now will have to deal with the toxic ash in the air. But compared to those who lost their homes so suddenly, and many who lost their pets in the firestorm, we have nothing to complain about.
Just as we said a couple weeks ago when the tornadoes happened in several states, when somebody loses their entire home in a few hours, they do not need quilts. They need disaster relief funds. (eQuilter contributed to the Mission of Love to Bowling Green KY which delivered a 53″ semi truck full of disaster relief supplies on Dec 28.)
If you are moved to send a donation to those who have lost everything here, I have posted links to several relief organizations here on our blog. Yes, in the future we will be accepting and distributing comfort quilts but for now I really just encourage you to donate what you can to these communities who have been so deeply affected by these extreme weather events caused by Climate Change.
Our local TV weatherman stressed that this firestorm was caused by Climate Change – a culmination of a long hot fall, December temps 20 degrees above normal, and no precipitation. The combination of the drought, the tinderbox effect and the high winds was a disaster waiting to happen…and was definitely unprecedented.
I wrote to thank him, and he asked for this in return: to contact other news media and ask them to start covering the reality of how climate change is causing these extreme weather events. So I am just passing on this request to you, because these events are coming to all of our communities with time. For now we must care for those who have been so cruelly impacted, and think about what we need to do to demand action on this issue.
We wish you a safe and healthy New Year, and I invite you to join me as a person dedicated to protecting the planet. We’ve only got one, and she’s a beauty.
…sharing your love of fabric,
Luana and Paul
Quilt/Travel Calendar:
Jan 18 – Apr 9, 2022 – New England Quilt Museum (NEQM) “For the Love of Gaia” exhibit
Feb 16-19 – QuiltCon – Phoenix Arizona
Sat, April 9 – “International Quilt Trends” lecture – NEQM Closing Reception
October 2022 – Luana’s Polar Bear Tour – Churchill Manitoba Canada
