The Town of Paradise was devastated by the worst fire in California history on Nov 8, 2018. Over 90% of the Town was wiped out, more than 40,000 people were evacuated, and approximately 19,000 properties were destroyed.
We need help to rebuild this great town. The infrastructure is built, repaired, and functioning to support a town of a population far greater than it currently has, about 2,500. The schools are functioning as well as grocery stores and gas stations. We are now ready to build.
The Grant idea is to help build 240 houses over the next 5 years. The Hope Ministries has a division called VROC (Volunteers Rebuilding Our Communities) that is currently working in Sonoma and Redding and is going to be the lead on this project. They have decades of experience doing this, although this is their biggest project to date. The first real obstacle is where to house their volunteers (they have a network of personnel that have repeatedly done these kinds of things) to provide all the labor for building these houses at no charge. There simply are no hotels, motels, or rentals remaining in the area, they all burned down. Evacuees are still living in RV's on their burnt lots (no RV parking spots still), FEMA trailers, and insurance is still paying for temporary lodging.
In order to build houses, you need man power. The first phase is to build a "bunk house" for the volunteers. Designed to house 60 people at a time (30 women and 30 men) where they can sleep, eat, rest, and be trained to work efficiently.
Rotary International does not build buildings. But we can do all the interior work. The idea is that through this Grant, Rotary will make the building useful on the day Rotary dollars are all spent. The commercial kitchen will be equipped to feed up to 60 people three meals a day, including the pots, pans, silverware, plates, etc. as well as the mattresses, couches, and monitors (for entertainment, and training). The Grant will also provide the HVAC units, and a back-up generator.
Right now, the grant is for $313,787.00.
If your Club, or AG area, or other Rotary groups are able to help, we would gladly accept checks, money orders, and even gold. If you prefer a more hands-on approach, you can actually come up and help build houses that very deserving people will get MORTGAGE FREE when the house is completed. After a very extensive vetting process, the owners must be able to pay property tax and homeowners insurance, and some other things to make this sustainable.
If you have money from a project that cannot get done - because of the virus, or any other reason - that money may be able to be directed to this. Your refund from Camp Royal, Camp Venture, or Young Campers may be able to be used. You may decide to do a fund raiser for Paradise (Livermore Valley Sunrise did a barbecue for us that raised $30,000.00! Placerville Rotary did a few fundraisers, including a community wide spaghetti feed that raised $100,000.00 for us!) Whatever you can do is much needed and appreciated.
The economic impact - the "trickle down" - of this project is enormous. The materials, licensed contractors, building materials for the houses, providing 420 meals a week, and the other things to accomplish getting these homes built locally is quite mind boggling actually.
After the project is over, and all the houses are complete, this building will be used for community purposes. It is not known what the town may need at that point, but a community center, a concert venue, a meeting place for clubs like Rotary are all in consideration
Please contact me for further details. I can also come to your Club meeting Or ZOOM) and do a program if you wish.
Dropped
This project has been "Dropped". Check the history log entries to see why it was dropped.
Project listed for the 2019-20 Rotary Year.
The TRF Grant application number is #2016441.
Proposed Financing
Existing Contributions Towards This Project
Date
Cash
DDF
Total
Paradise (5160)
24-Jun-20
$5,000
$0
$5,000
District 4630 DDF
25-Jun-20
-
$17,000
$17,000
Las Vegas WON (5300)
25-Jun-20
$100
$0
$100
Woodside/Portola Valley (5150)
25-Jun-20
$450
$0
$450
Weed (5160)
25-Jun-20
$1,000
$0
$1,000
Concord-Diablo (5160)
25-Jun-20
$1,000
$0
$1,000
San Ramon Valley (5160)
25-Jun-20
$2,500
$0
$2,500
Martinez (5160)
25-Jun-20
$3,000
$0
$3,000
Rossmoor (Walnut Creek) (5160)
25-Jun-20
$5,000
$0
$5,000
Calistoga (5130)
25-Jun-20
$1
$10,000
$10,001
Berkeley (5160)
25-Jun-20
$5,900
$0
$5,900
District 4700 DDF
25-Jun-20
-
$8,000
$8,000
District 4470 DDF
26-Jun-20
-
$5,000
$5,000
District 4730 DDF
26-Jun-20
-
$10,000
$10,000
District 5110 DDF
26-Jun-20
-
$10,000
$10,000
Amount Requested from The Rotary Foundation
$11,975
$60,000
$71,975
Total
$155,926
Note: as of July 1, 2015 there is a 5% additional support fee for cash contributions. This fee does not appear in the financials above because it does not apply if the funds are sent directly to the project account (without going through TRF, and therefore without Paul Harris credit). Clubs sending their cash contribution to TRF must be aware they will have to send an additional 5%.
Project Supporting Documents
There are no documents yet for this project. Go to the administration page to upload documents.
Project Photos
There are no photos yet for this project.
Go to the administration page to upload photos.
History Log Entries
24-Jun-20
System Entry
System Entry: Creation of project page.
25-Jun-20
System Entry
System Entry: Pledge of $1 by Antonio Carlos Cardoso of the Rotary Club of Campo Mourão, District 4630.
25-Jun-20
System Entry
System Entry: Pledge of $100 by Chehab El awar of the Rotary Club of Las Vegas WON, District 5300.
25-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of $450 by Allen Cary of the Rotary Club of Woodside/Portola Valley, District 5150.
25-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of $1,000 by Sandra Duchi of the Rotary Club of Weed, District 5160.
25-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of $1,000 by Beri Kasper of the Rotary Club of Concord-Diablo, District 5160.
25-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of $2,500 by Dany Gregory of the Rotary Club of San Ramon Valley, District 5160.
25-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of $3,000 by Janet Kennedy of the Rotary Club of Martinez, District 5160.
25-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of $5,000 by Joy Alaidarous of the Rotary Club of Rossmoor (Walnut Creek), District 5160.
25-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of $10,000 by Kevin Eisenberg of the Rotary Club of Calistoga, District 5130.
25-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of $5,900 by Grier Graff of the Rotary Club of Berkeley, District 5160.
25-Jun-20
by Antonio Carlos CAadoso
System Entry: Pledge of $4,000 DDF by Nelço Angelo Tesser of the Rotary Club of Caxias, District 4700.
25-Jun-20
System Entry
System Entry: Pledge of $90,716 with $5,000 DDF by osmar@verdeslagosseguros.com.b of the Rotary Club of Ivinhema, District 4470.
25-Jun-20
System Entry
System Entry: Project is now "Fully Pledged".
26-Jun-20
by Osmar
System Entry: Pledge of $5,000 DDF by EDILSON BIGATAO of District 4470.
26-Jun-20
by Antonio Carlos CAadoso
System Entry: Pledge of $10,000 DDF by Chang Yen-Li Chain of the Rotary Club of Curitiba, District 4730.
26-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of $10,000 DDF by Tim Mobley of the Rotary Club of Bear Creek Valley, District 5110.
26-Jun-20
by Brian Gray
System Entry: Pledge of by Brian Gray of the Rotary Club of Paradise, District 5160.
2-Sep-20
System Entry
System Entry: Fully Pledged project dropped per lack of response to the carry-over notification emails.
