Otis stands tall
Residents rally after wildfire devastation
Story & photos by Gretchen Ammerman
Oregon Coast TODAY
In an area where periods of consistent rain can be counted not just in days and weeks but, occasionally, months, the Echo Mountain wildfire brought communities throughout north Lincoln County face to face with a shocking new reality.
But as soon as the shock wore off, residents and business owners got to work, figuring out how to help those that had lost their homes.
“We just felt so helpless so we immediately tried to do whatever we could think of,” said coffee roaster Rebecca Haslett, owner of LEFT COAST Coffee Co. “It didn’t even feel like something we had to put thought and effort into; we love this community and it’s just what you do when your community needs help.”
Rebecca and husband, JB, not only donated ground coffee to as many places as they could think of, they used their Depoe Bay-based coffee shop as a sanctuary site and a place to collect donations and disseminate information.
One of the places they brought extra coffee to was Zefir Coffee. Owner Krista Melone opened the shop to offer free cups of coffee to anyone that needed it as soon as they were able to. She and her business partner, Rachel Baird, worked with the Hasletts to bring brewed pots of coffee wherever they heard there was a need, including the power company and the sheriff’s office.
Baird and Melone are also the owners of the gift and body care shop Tah•Lume, which they are using to help fill other needs for first responders.
“We’re giving lip balm and dry skin lotion to any of the first responders that want it,” Baird said. “We heard that especially the rookie firefighters are experiencing chapping from being near the fire for so many hours, so we wanted to help give them some relief.”
Marci Baker, owner of Marci’s Bistro, offered her restaurant as a place for donations to be dropped off and distributed. Every available surface in the building’s basement was soon filled with clothes, toys, shoes and other items.
Quickly filled too was the school bus donation station, modeled on the annual “Stuff a Bus,” program, where a school bus is filled with school supplies for kids that need them at the beginning of each school year.
The bus, parked at the Safeway parking lot on Saturday, Sept. 12, filled so quickly that donations outpaced the volunteers’ ability to get them into the bus, so a line of cars and trucks came to take donations to more stationary collection sites.
Family owned and operated, the Break Time Catering food truck can usually be found serving Mexican food on the Newport Bayfront, but the owners actually live in Lincoln City very near the edge of the blaze. Once they received the all clear to return home, they decided to feed first responders who were helping keep them from losing their home. Setting up an assembly line staffed by family and friends, the Canales family fed firefighters, road crews, police, state troopers and more for more than four hours.
WHAT CAN I DO?
The needs of the community are currently being assessed, but there are still some things you can do to help.
If you find or hear an animal in distress, please contact the animal shelter or the sheriff’s office.
“People are setting up their own pages to get found animals fostered or adopted,” said shelter director Laura Braxling. “That could be someone’s pet and they could have a very good reason why it got separated from the family.”
And though Braxling expressed appreciation for the incredible response from community animal lovers, their current supply of dog and cat food is more than enough.
“We don’t need any more donations,” she said, “We can’t even get in our doors right now.”
For more information, to report an animal in distress, or to check the list of lost and found animals, go to www.co.lincoln.or.us/animalshelter.
The Lincoln County Board of Realtors came together as a group to set up a donation and resource center.
“We started out just by asking for donations from our membership but it blew up into our whole community because everybody wanted to do something to help,” said executive officer Lynlei Gilleo. “We have lots clothes and other goods but also lots of our local businesses have donated gift cards, including gas cards.”
To minimize waste and ensure families get their needs truly met, the association is also tapping into its membership.
“We’re matching individual families with a realtor that will know what their family really needs,” Gilleo said. “So, for example if they have a seven-year-old daughter, they can get things a young girl needs.”
For more information about how you can donate or be matched with your personal Realtor angel, go to www.lincolncountyrealtors.com.
Volunteers are also needed to staff a donation site at the old Loft store in the Lincoln City Outlets. Organizers are looking for people who can commit to a four-hour shift once per week. For details, message Lincoln City Foursquare Church Pastor Stephen Lennstrom via Facebook.
Some of the families that lost everything are members of the local surfing community, which is also stepping up to help them back on their neoprene-clad feet.
Bryan Nichols, owner of ZuhG Surf Shop, started collecting donations at his shop, including throwing in quite a few brand-new clothes from his own inventory.
“I’ll take anything people want to give,” he said. “But I especially want to help our local surfers with gear; at least three that I know of have lost everything and we just want to help get them and their families back in the water doing the sport they love. Ossie’s Surf Shop in Newport is joining in to help, too.”
A new client of Nichols’ graphics division, Tilted Halo surfboard repair in Portland, decided to help even though they are not locals. On Friday, Sept. 18, they will be setting up some canopies on the deck outside of the surf shop and cooking a Filipino stew called Sinigang for anyone that wants it, but especially those displaced by the fires.
They can use some local volunteers to help to serve, set up, tear down and clean up. Go to the Tilted Halo LLC page on Facebook to find out more or to help out.
Faith Baptist Church is serving a free lunch every day from 10 am to 2 pm; look for the truck with the lemon behind the church at 5750 Hwy. 101. To volunteer or donate, call 541-994-9106 or 541-992-9523.
Stories of people doing what they can to help could fill many more pages. More can be found on Facebook groups like Lincoln City: Fires of 2020 or Immediate Needs After Echo Fire Oregon, which also feature details of the various GoFundMe appeals for affected families.
But even this short selection of stories makes one thing very clear, the people of Lincoln County don’t let their neighbors down.