Malibu families struggling to recover after the devastating Woolsey Fire are receiving support from “Adopt-a-Family,” part of Malibu Love.
The program was the brainchild of local homemaker and mom Tahia Hocking. Website founder Kelly Wirht, a web designer who grew up in Malibu, and local Shayna Spreckman helped make it happen.
Visit malibulove.org/families-in-need to see all the families listed and donate.
The requirement for a family to sign up is that they must have lost their home in the Woolsey Fire. Families are vetted by providing a FEMA claim number, pictures of their damaged property and a cross check of addresses with the City of Malibu website listing damaged/total loss properties.
The Campa family
Rudolph “Rudy” and Alma Suehiro Campa bought their home on Birdview Avenue on Point Dume in 1983 and raised their two children, Rick and Nicole, there. Rudy is now in his late 80s and Alma is in her 70s.
About two months after the couple’s home burned down on Nov. 9, daughter Nicole wrote, “They’ve already experienced medical situations due to the stress of the fire and we’re worried for what stressful things might come along with the rebuild process. To have this happen to anyone is a tragedy, but for people like my parents who are elderly, it’s just plain awful. We kids are helping as much as we can to alleviate any sort of stress so they can just grieve without having to deal with the logistical burden, but it’s never easy.
“Both my parents grew up in low-income situations and worked very hard to live happy and peaceful lives at our Malibu home,” Nicole continued. “My mom is a retired physician and my dad is a Korean War veteran from East Los Angeles who served in the U.S. Navy. To say it breaks our hearts that my once-retired parents now have to work hard to rebuild their home is an understatement.”
After the fire, the Campas found out they were underinsured for rebuilding purposes. Their daughter says they’re now “looking for any type of support to help rebuild their home in a timely, cost effective, permit- allowing fashion that will get them back on their feet for their last phase of life.”
The Halston family
The Halston family—dad Rodger, daughter Avalon, 13 and son Maverick, 7—evacuated their rental home on Anacapa View Drive in one vehicle and the clothes on their backs.
“To say this is devastating is an understatement,” Roger said. “My children are wrecked. We literally have nothing left. Every item we acquired over each of our lifetimes was burned. The steps to rebuilding our lives will be challenging mentally, physically and emotionally.”
Rodger, an actor, was one of the last in his neighborhood to evacuate at 1:30 p.m. the day of the fire. On the way to PCH, he noticed three horses left in a corral down a canyon, and got them to safety at Zuma Beach, then helped a hysterical woman sitting in her car in a gated driveway because the gate wouldn’t open.
The Halston family is staying in Venice for now, with Rodger driving the children back and forth to Malibu schools every day. He hopes to find something to rent in Malibu this summer.
“You don’t really think about all the things it takes to furnish a house,” he said. “It’s completely overwhelming. My loss was complete because I’d let my renter’s insurance expire.”
“We need a home, furniture, clothing, an automobile, counseling and all other life resources to rebuild our home and life,” he wrote.
