By ANDREW WOLFBERG
My 11-year-old son, Leo, and I are working on a project to support children from Pacific Palisades who lost their sports card and memorabilia collections in the recent fire. Living close to the impacted areas, we have seen firsthand how this tragedy has affected many families—including my son’s friends, classmates, and teammates—who lost both their homes and their treasured collections.
For many of these kids, collecting wasn’t just a hobby; their cards and memorabilia held deep sentimental value. To help them rebuild, we have been donating from our personal collections, receiving unsolicited contributions from friends, and purchasing cards on eBay to fulfill special requests. Additionally, I’ve connected with active and retired professional athletes who have generously offered to autograph cards, photographs, and baseballs to help these kids who have lost so much.
So far, we’ve been able to assist a few children, and I’ve been working with schools, clergy, and local organizations to identify others in need. I would love your help in spreading the word so we can reach more young collectors (and maybe even some adults who are young at heart) who lost their sports card collections. My hope is to be able to make another round of distributions in March after we have received more of the autographed items.
If possible, could you ask the community to send me (andrew@catrusts.com) the names of anyone who would benefit from this project, along with their favorite teams and players (to help me personalize the gifts)? Additionally, if anyone has connections to professional athletes who might be willing to sign items for these kids, that support would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
(Editor’s note: Wolfberg, an attorney, and a long-time resident in Pacific Palisades, has also been a member of the Pacific Palisades Community Council. )
Sue, what do you want??? My friends in Malibu are having to drive 90 minutes to get to an appointment in Santa Monica. Today, in order to meet with an ACE rep, one of my fellow Board members had to drive 1:40 from the valley and then go back to work. Do you want the Palisades to never clear out or do you want the surviving businesses on PCH to go under. I’ve driven up and down PCH a bunch and the vehicles are driving slowly and stopping at lights. It’s a lousy situation and just for the record, this is the second time Heather and I have lost our home. You have every right to be pissed about everything, but you are looked up to as a voice for the community (that’s why I recently started sending you a small donation each month). Throwing gasoline on a fire never helps anything.
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/pacific-palisades-music-teacher-husband-lose-home-for-second-time-to-southern-california-wildfire/
L.A. County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath announced today that beginning February 20, residents and businesses in the burn scar areas in Malibu, Sunset Mesa, Topanga Canyon, and other unincorporated communities will be able to pick up an access pass from Malibu City Hall, 23825 Stuart Ranch Rd, Malibu, CA 90265 from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. These are distributed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
Like the prior limited reopening, PCH will be one lane in each direction at the reduced speed of 25 MPH. This is a resident access only reopening and allows critical utility work to continue.
Access to Pacific Palisades will remain restricted to residents and authorized personnel only. LAPD and National Guard personnel are manning checkpoints, and CHP is providing crime suppression support within the zone.
What could go wrong here? Heavy trucks moving debris from about 6,000 homes and Horvath decides to add more traffic to the road? Does she know the stoplights on PCH are not fixed, yet? And will traffic really go 25 MPH?
Okay.
Some 2,000 rare books and manuscripts, including letters from Napoleon, Picasso and Hemingway, burned along with all family portraits going back some 200 years, rare Japanese pottery collected over 50 years…..all of it could have fit in the back of two vans but we were positive that the Fire Department was going to be manning the usual fire lines. Had they announced they were surrendering the town we would have saved it all.