Bowls of hope fill souls, bellies at John Muir High’s Eaton Fire anniversary event
Living on Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach for the past year or so has offered some serenity to Eaton Fire survivor Barbara Ford.
On Wednesday, Jan. 7, a year after the blaze displaced her from her home, she stepped onto the John Muir High School campus 30 miles away from her temporary residence for an Eaton Fire anniversary event with the community she plans to eventually return to.
“It’s very nice in Long Beach, but it’s not home,” Ford, 75, said.
Cynthia Lake, a former art teacher at John Muir, hosted the event through her Side Street Projects nonprofit along with the John Muir Alumni Association. Handmade, ceramic bowls given out at the event served as symbols of hope and comfort.
“After being here for 30 years, I’ve met thousands and thousands of families and taught their grandchildren by the time I retired,” Lake said. “So, knowing my (John Muir) family had been affected by something that I consider to be my art form, fire, was devastating and I had to figure out a way to help them recover.”
Lake made the ceramic bowls — All 240 bowls, of different shapes, sizes and colors — as part of her “Eaton Up” series, she said, when she thought of “filling the belly” as a way to help restore members of her community.
“Put food in the bowl, and ‘Eat-on’ up,” Lake said. “This is my joy.”
Culinary club member Kaiyah Murrell said that rather than selling the food, the goal was to give to the community that has suffered, lost jobs and more.
She felt the effects first hand, she said, when her mother was temporarily out of work after smoke from the fire made it unsafe to return to her Pasadena office.
Attendees still navigating recovery also learned about resources from such organizations as San Gabriel Valley National Alliance on Mental Illness and 301 Organics, which is working to test the safety of ground soil at burnt down home and business sites before rebuilding happens.
John Muir’s choir and marching band performed “Rise Up” by Andra Day and “All I Do is Win” by DJ Khaled, echoing the themes renewal and strength.
“Altadena is a family that’s going to rebuild and come back stronger, more resilient, and we’re going to show the country what it’s like to work together and work through the bureaucracies, ” said Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.
Those at the event also sculpted and painted clay tiles to be placed in the 1,000 Voices Altadena Mosaic, artist Alma Cielo said, made with shards from broken plates, mugs and other items that residents lost in the fire.
Students in the high school’s culinary club gave out free spicy chickpea and rice salads to attendees, made with greens from the campus garden.
“If they’re giving away bowls, there should be some nourishment to go with them,” said Jill McArthur, farm to school field coordinator at the Pasadena Unified School District.
Ford, meanwhile, is looking forward to getting settled again in the place she’s most familiar with, she said, adding that two of her sons had attended John Muir.
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“I’m 75, so I need to be settled,” she added, basking in the warm sun and cool breeze.
The John Muir campus was untouched by the fire, but families who live and work in the scorched Altadena and parts of Pasadena are still picking up the pieces.
All schools across the Pasadena Unified School District also observed a brief moment of silence to honor last year’s tragedy. The district took a particularly hard hit from the massive fire, felt across the scope of its schools.
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“While our focus remains on the future, we pause to honor this moment as part of our shared experience and a reminder of the power of us as a community: working together, supporting one another, and lifting up our students,” according to PUSD’s announcement.