Community support shines
Re*Imagine Medical Lake President Gerri Johnson sheds a few tears after being given a $10,000 donation from Spokane Teachers Credit Union..
MEDICAL LAKE – Bringing a community together is helping to alleviate some of the loss people are dealing with here.
With that in mind, a community event was held on Aug. 23.
According to Chris Munoz, the Spokane County Firefighters Pipes and Drums group came up with an idea for a fundraiser with very little time to plan.
"We started planning the event less than 24 hours from the time we wanted to hold it," Munoz said. "We developed a logo honoring fire victims and had as many shirts printed as we could in the short time we had."
Munoz said the community turnout was tremendous, and the group couldn't believe how many people showed up.
A lot of people also showed up for the free pizza from David's Pizza from Spokane. They cooked it fresh and on site in their fire engine pizza oven.
He said 100 percent of the proceeds will be going to fire victims in the community.
According to Munoz, the efforts within the community groups can help provide some of the short term assistance while larger groups and organizations have to go through a process to release donated funds.
During the Aug. 23 event, the local Spokane Teachers Credit Union pledged a $10,000 donation to help in the community recovery efforts.
According to Gerri Johnson the President of the local non-profit Re*Imagine Medical Lake, the group lost some storage space and holiday decorations in the Gray Fire.
Munoz said connecting people to resources and connecting people and businesses that want to donate are essential, and one of the primary goals of the group and the current effort.
Munoz said the group is hoping to add on to the current trend that has started and they are planning another event that will be bigger than this event. According to Munoz there were a ton of donations coming in from the community as well, totaling more than $18,000.
"We hope to carry and build on the momentum that has started," Munoz said. "So many people showed up for us, and there are so many efforts to assist others going on around the region."
"When you give people hope and inspiration, the rest will follow.".
Matthew graduated from West Virginia University-Parkersburg in 2011 with a journalism degree. He's an award-winning photographer and enjoys writing stories about people.
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