Malibu families struggling to recover after the Woolsey Fire are receiving support from the Adopt-a-Family project of Malibu Love.
The program was the brainchild of 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 or individual to be included 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 Cox family
“When people ask, ‘What’s the one thing you wish had been different about your preparation for this fire?’ my response is, ‘I wish the authorities had done the same thing they did in the Thomas Fire—tell Malibu to prepare to evacuate,’” Stacie said.
Because there were no warnings about the possibility of evacuating, Stacie encouraged Paul and Falyn to head to the airport for a preplanned trip to New York to visit grandparents, even though he wanted to stay behind because of the fire.
When the evacuation order came, Stacie was at the house with her best friend, and they left immediately with the dog, Gypsy, packing very little. Having the dog was difficult because Stacie wasn’t allowed to take her to her office and was limited in where she could go.
When Paul and Falyn returned from New York, one of Stacie’s friends, Kim Jerolimic Anderson, wrote, “Falyn, like her father, suffers from asthma, and both went to stay with an uncle in New Mexico to escape the hazardous air quality. Falyn attended school in New Mexico briefly and Stacie stayed in the LA area with various friends and continued working in Santa Monica as a psychotherapist.”
Paul came back when the air improved, and returned to his start-up bakery business in Downtown LA.
In thinking back on the fire, Stacie still sounds angry about the fact that the LA County Fire Department came to Corral Canyon and confiscated the neighborhood-owned fire truck which was supposed to protect them. “They let Corral burn, and that was very upsetting,” she said.
The Coxes had moved into the Corral Canyon home in 2014.
“It was our dream house,” Stacie said.
They put a lot of effort into making the house environmentally friendly, including solar panels, eco-friendly toilets, rain barrels, drought tolerant landscaping and an eco-friendly washer and dryer.
“It was our sanctuary, and the small rental house we now have in Sunset Mesa offers none of these [environmental] things,” she said. “My husband is the only one from our family that has gone back to the home since it burned. It was too difficult and painful to imagine seeing it destroyed for my daughter and myself.”
At Falyn’s school, Webster Elementary, “Only seven families were impacted by the Woolsey Fire,” Stacie said. She pushed for a support group at the school, similar to one at Juan Cabrillo Elementary School.
Many friends have told Stacie she should go back to the burned property just to get some closure. “My response is that my dad died in a plane crash 20 years ago and if I can get closure on that, then I can get closure on this home now without seeing it destroyed. I wish to remember it as our beautiful sanctuary where so much love was poured into making it ours—not remember it as being demolished.”
Kim Anderson, the friend who started the family’s GoFundMe fundraiser site wrote, “We’re hoping to help the Cox family get back on their feet and fill the gaps of resources and items that need to be replaced so they can rebuild their lives. Thank you so much and we appreciate any donation you are able to give through the GoFundMe site, ‘Help Stacie and family recover from Woolsey fire!’”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated at the request of the Cox family.
