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Alright, recording with Lindsay Loca. I had to do it. Ok. All right, Lindsey. So, just to start off on some of these questions. Um, how do you recall? And how did you find out about the tubs fire on the night of October 8th? Um, well, I

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was living in my sle at the time off of Stony Point Road and, um, the smell woke me up. Um, we kept all of the windows and doors closed, but the smell, I thought it smelled like a campfire, you know, and it woke me up probably

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five or six in the morning and I kind of stumbled out of my room because, uh, it was just like such a strong smell and one of my roommates was sitting on the couch watching TV and it was on the news. And so, yeah. Yeah. Um,

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and yeah, that's how I figured out initially that there was, um, a fire going on. Ok. And then how was it that you got involved with helping, um, the clients at Athena House after that point. Um, so my job at the time was over in Bennett

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Valley and, uh, they were closed, I think that whole area was evacuated. It's, it's over by the, the house. Um, and so a good friend of mine called me up. I just kind of was sitting there at my house and didn't really know what to do.

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It was in my super early recovery and kind of freaked out by the whole thing. And, um, my friend Patrick called me up and asked me what I was doing and I said nothing. And so he came and picked me up, uh, we went out to

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breakfast and then we went down to the fair, uh, fairgrounds where, um, the girls were evacuated. Yeah. Ok. And then, well, upon getting there, what did you and Patrick do? Um, so we just met up, we went and found, I think she had been there prior.

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Um, but we went and found them, they were over in the far corner of the building and it wasn't chaos. Um, like people running and screaming everywhere, but it was chaotic. I was overwhelmed by the amount of people to prepare. Um, it was just insane and,

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um, I didn't really know what to do with myself. I was scared and stuff. So I just went and, you know, um, laid down, laid down some roots with the girls at Athena House. Um, and we just hung out with them. Um, I can't remember exactly.

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I think we went there like two or three days in a row and just, uh, spent a good part of the day with them tried to kind of um help keep their spirits up. Um I can't remember like super, super well detailed, but I do know

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that a couple of the girls were really tempted to leave. Um Let's see, uh they had us kind of help to chaperone them like um I remember there was all these, you know, food trucks and vendors and places where you could go to get clothes. Um

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And I think those girls, they didn't have anything. I don't think they had time to grab anything. Um And so we would just kind of act as support to kind of chaperone them. Um Yeah, and just, yeah, like try to kind of keep their spirits up.

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Um I remember doing karaoke God, if I could find my old phone, I, I think I actually have videos of that. Um But yeah, I remember that was one of the things that they had going on there. Um But the whole community came together and just

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really made it, you know, the best possible experience given the situation. Um There was uh so, so much, so much to do there. They had like, remember they had like an ice cream truck or some kind of uh something or another, they have a coffee truck.

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Um Everybody in the building was on cocks. Um Yeah, it was, it was nuts. Wow. Yeah. And then let's go ahead and see. Ok, so you were there providing the woman support. You were helping chaperone them getting to know the girls that were in treatment and

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as well as being in a female alumni just uh just trying to just literally trying to support these ladies in this time of chaos. And then, and what's that? And myself, um I'm remembering more. So they also threw together like makeshift meetings like uh yeah, I

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remember um going out to like the picnic benches and stuff and uh that was the first time I heard one of my friends there. Um And yeah, they just really made it happen for us like it was cool. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then

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I was gonna ask and then, so you talked with your friend Patrick. So you weren't being called upon to do this. You guys went and volunteered and offered your services and your time at this, at this time to uh help out these ladies and, and Latina

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house. That's pretty amazing. I mean, that's a huge gift right there. Um So then I just wanted to go, let's go ahead. Um So that's the situation then can you tell me um have you thought about any strengths that you've discovered after that experience or during

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that experience that might have changed you? I know. That's a heavy one. Yeah, that's a good question. I know. Right. I try, you know, I mean, I don't know, necessarily like for myself, but as a community you know, like, um, I guess it would include myself

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because I'm just a grain of sand in this community. But just the way everybody came together and was just like, it didn't matter like your class or your race or your anything. You know, it seems nowadays people just kind of keep to themselves and there's not

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a, he's like a strong sense of community, but in that situation there was like, it was overwhelming. I remember, um, trying to donate some clothes and they had to turn me away because they were overwhelmed with donations for clothes. Um But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's

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awesome. Yeah. Um, we also, I know that this isn't your project. But, um, we also, we did, um, the Kincade fight or 20 Yeah, me and Ashly Georgia. Um, and she, we all stayed the night at Athena house and I swear to God, it was one

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of the best nights of my life. Oh, wow. Yeah. We, um, Sylvie had to go evacuate her horses. And so she, you know, asked Ashlyn, like, hey, can you stay with the girls? And when Ashlyn told me I was like, I'm coming too. Yes. And uh

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we called Georgia up and, um, I think she was working there at the time as well and we just had the best sleepover. It's like when um Niel didn't have their shit together and like Niel alerts were going off like, every five minutes every night. Or

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um all night and uh we were like jumping up, putting our shoes on like, wait, we gotta evacuate, wait, don't evacuate, you know, uh windows were blowing open. There was no power in the stone house, uh trees crashing outside. It was fucking crazy. That's wild. Yeah.

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Oh my gosh. Yeah. The kin kid. I mean, that was like back to back almost. Yes, it was definitely scary. Yes. And then yes, because we were over here in Windsor and then we were told to evacuate. I mean, and that was right. Yeah, I remember

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they were like, we're anticipating the entire town of heels and Windsor to burn to the car. Yeah. Yeah, we were like, what I know cheating me right now. I got the chills just thinking about it. It's too wild. Um, and then, so you were helping the

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ladies then what, at the vets and all of that stuff? And so it's a little bit chao. And then did you, um, take them back to Athena house or were you there at all or you were just there basically when they were, you know, on the

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makeshift cots and, you know. Yeah. No, I just stayed with them at the vets building for, I'll just say, like a couple of days and just hung out with them and I mean, I don't know that I helped very much per se but if I did

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they, you know, help me as much as I help them. Well, I mean, you got, you, you donated your time to, to be there and I mean, that's, that's already huge. And I mean, you helped, I'm sure that was a huge help for Athena House, you

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know, for Sylvia and Cynthia too. So please don't minimize you helping. No, but seriously, you know, and to have that support is huge. Yeah, dude. And I always remember how much like it meant to me, like, when, um, the girls, like, alumni would show up, you

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know. Um, it was just always like, uh, no, definitely. No, I agree. I agree. Alumni too. It's a sisterhood. Well, I think too, then you're an example to those ladies, you know, of, of what it is to give back, you know, what it is to be

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an alumni, you know, especially during this time. So, so it's pretty wild. Ok, I'm gonna stop the recording right now.