Search results for: Colorado

By AJ Chalom

In mid-July, members of Foundation Beyond Belief voted to approve a Crisis Response for areas affected by the Colorado Wildfires. We chose to donate to the volunteer fire departments to help them replenish their supplies after their firefighting efforts were finished. One of the beneficiaries was the Rist Canyon Volunteer Fire Department (RCVFD).

Walker Bristol described the High Park Fire: “[Fire Chief] Bob Gann … posted a reflection to the RCVFD website: ’The High Park Fire certainly eclipses anything we have seen.’
 
“The plight of the Colorado volunteer firefighters isn’t one of heroes coming on horseback from beyond the horizon to help the endangered; it’s one of heroes emerging from the catastrophe itself. Fellow citizens, who go to the same drug store as the peers they’re protecting, … shouldered the burden of a threatened community themselves.”

Not only houses, buildings, and a community were burned—a forest and a watershed were also affected by the fire. Our current Natural World beneficiary LightHawk describes one mission in their newsletter, Waypoints. “[T]he High Park fire burned … more than 87,000 acres. The fire burned a large portion of the Poudre River Watershed, which serves as a primary source of water for the cities of Fort Collins and Greeley, as well as several rural water districts. With extensive areas of burned timber and unstable soils, heavy late summer rains caused severe mudslides that closed roads and made the Poudre River run black.”

The community was not left to rebuild by itself: LightHawk joined the effort.

LightHawk reports, “[S]cientists, nonprofit organizations, and local government leaders got together and formed the High Park Restoration Coalition to ensure coordinated, well-planned restoration efforts. LightHawk was there in the early stages of the effort, flying leaders of the coalition over the burned area to inform their planning efforts …

“[On October 8,] seven LightHawk pilots … provided the aerial perspective to twelve additional community leaders. Passengers on these flights observed the effects and extent of the fire, and were also able to see volunteers on the ground actively working to stabilize soils with barriers and reseeding efforts. Following the flights, they met to share ideas and emphasize the importance of coordinating their efforts and working together to efficiently and effectively restore the watershed that they all depend upon.”

LightHawk’s Mission Map describes three missions, on August 30, October 7, and October 15, that related to this project. Search the map for dates and select “Wildlands” to find out more.

GlobeMed is our current Poverty and Health Beneficiary, and they are accomplishing glorious things. “Empower students,” says their mission statement—and it’s been happening. The chapter at Colorado College certainly exemplifies that.

With a partnership that just launched this fall, students at the school have paired with the Western Organization of People Living with HIV/AIDS. Leaping right in to the action, some of their members are also currently abroad in Ghana, blogging away. The writing, though, is the least of the action as they visit hospitals, examine infrastructure, and learn, learn, learn.

Say Alyssa and Sarah:

Why, you might ask yourself, do women not have access to a hospital in one of the most developed and westernized countries on the African continent? Good question; I’ve been asking myself the same one all day. Within the Akatsi District, there are almost 200,000 people, and there is one doctor. And he’s a pediatrician. What is causing this? While I’m not expert, I’ve made some assumptions . . .

Read the rest here.

With 50 different chapters on 50 campuses, GlobeMed is engaging more than 1,500 students to partner with organizations across the globe. This isn’t just a partnership in name. GlobeMed chapters on campus connect in a one-to-one model with a single group to support through ideas, funds, projects, and publicity. Connections are long term—more than the length of one leader’s time at the university. How’s that been working, we ask? It’s been working amazingly.

This guest post comes from Paul Chiariello of the Humanist Chaplaincy at Rutgers.

Fire! Fire! The initial alarm raised by catastrophe usually brings with it a substantial response of humanitarian relief. And I have to say that again and again my pride in humanity is restored. The mantra “be good for goodness’ sake” comes to life in these events for me as I see people work together, for no personal reward, to help out those struck by tsunamis, tornados, and, most recently in Colorado, wildfires. The sad flip side of this, however, is that the amazing energy and support invested during that initial alarm rarely makes it to the new dangers that spring up in the aftermath. If what we care about is goodness, we need to seek it out where it’s needed, and not only where there’s hype.

On July 8, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper lifted the state-wide ban on fires. After containing most of the fires and receiving much-needed rain, the danger had largely passed.

Well, dangers from fires, that is. After finally being contained on July 11, the fire in Waldo Canyon, whose firefighter fund FBB’s Humanist Crisis Response has been supporting, was named the most destructive fire in Colorado’s history. But the dollar figures that soar into the tens of millions for Waldo alone are only those caused by the fires themselves. 

Waldo Canyon and other areas are now receiving flash flood advisories instead of fire warnings. Barren hills left nude of trees whose roots kept the soil in place are now vulnerable to Colorado’s rainy season.

The picture to the left shows a pickup now completely submerged by a mudslide, which happened just days ago on U.S 24 west of Cascade in Waldo Canyon. Sandbags and other barriers that were previously being built to stave off fires are now being used to keep out floodwaters and mudslides. And even when the ground itself stays in place, the ashy layers on top run into streams, creating “an oily, black brew.”

The Humanist Crisis Response has as its mission to do the most good they can. In Colorado this means helping to build “immediate support of seriously underfunded and understaffed first responders.” While “first” responders are long gone after the initial alarm over the fires has subsided, the current round of volunteers are in no less need of support. They face no lesser forces of destruction, and we face no fewer opportunities to “be good for goodness’ sake.”

The fact that we selflessly come together and bring much needed relief when the sirens start to ring speaks well of humanity. But if our goal is good for goodness’ sake, we need to create our own energy, when the sirens die down.

Paul Chiariello
Assistant Coordinator at the Humanist Chaplaincy at Rutgers University

Donate to the Humanist Crisis Response Colorado Firefighter Fund (ends August 31)