Broomfield organizations continue to offer aid to victims of Marshall Fire

Sydney McDonald, Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.
·4 min read

Jan. 22—Many Broomfield organizations have been working constantly to provide aid since the Marshall Fire devastated the neighboring communities of Louisville and Superior.

Broomfield Fellowship in Serving Humanity (FISH) and A Precious Child have been working with other local organizations to organize and lead multiple drives for food and needed resources for families and community members affected by the fire.

"Although Broomfield has not had as many of our residents directly impacted by the fires, we have come together as a community to support our East Boulder County neighbors in need," FISH Executive Director Dayna Scott said. "FISH has been working closely with our partner Family Resource Center, Sister Carmen Community Center, to determine the best ways to support the recovery efforts."

Scott said some of the major work FISH has done includes three pallets of fresh produce to Sister Carmen to supplement food distribution, frozen meat, 2,000 pound of snacks to Boulder Valley School District schools and are actively promoting a multitude of drives that can best support the needs of their partners.

"We firmly believe in coordination and collaboration," Scott said. "What FISH has learned from those much more experienced in responding to disasters is that there has to be a strong chain of command. We are taking a supportive role in the Marshall Fire and are listening to our partners to determine how best to help."

FISH Communications and Media Manager Maggie Sava said after the fire people immediately began reaching out to find the best way to help, so FISH created a list for food drives that had the most needed or requested food and personal care items.

"It started with us listing what Sister Carmen, our partner family resource center, had requested as priority non-perishable items," Sava said. "We also adapted it to collect the food items that BVSD had requested and then built in the items needed by Boulder Fire & High Wind Disaster Relief Donation and Resource Center."

FISH has been sharing this list with partner groups and individuals who they've been connecting with.

"We want to help our partner organizations by storing these food and personal items and then delivering them when they have the space and the means to distribute them," Sava said. "We know that with a generous outpouring of support from our community, there also comes a lot of work to sort and store the donations coming in, so we are hoping to help mitigate that and avoid overwhelming their own donation centers.

"We have a very supportive community and have had such an amazing response from people who want to help their neighbors who were impacted by the fires. Our focus has been providing information on what support is needed and how they can connect with the organizations on the front lines of the relief effort. We are also suggesting that those who want to support those impacted by the fires make direct financial contributions to Sister Carmen and Community Foundation Boulder County as trusted agencies operating in Boulder County."

A Precious Child is continuing to serve families at the Boulder Fire & High Wind Disaster Relief Donation and Resource Center and are still looking for donations of new items ranging from hygiene items, diapers, blankets and pillows.

Those items can be dropped off from the general public at 21 W. Flatiron Crossing Drive in Broomfield until Monday. After that date, Chief Communications Officer at A Precious Child Courtney Wickberg said they will focus on bulk donations from corporations and business and community drives. Those donations can be coordinated with Maria Martinez at Maria@APreciousChild.org.

A Precious Child is also directly serving families by providing case management services providing access to more essential items. So far since the fires they have served more than 2,400 individuals.

"Our priority is helping our neighbors in need while they face such devastating loss of homes and businesses," Wickberg said. "When the fires first broke out, we were quickly jumping on calls with our fellow Broomfield VOAD members to identify the needs of the community and see how we could best support."

Wickberg said volunteers are also still needed. If anyone is interested in volunteering, they can sign up through Spark the Change at ColoradoResponds.org.