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fossils for kids that literally lost everything
fossilsonwheels posted a topic in General Fossil Discussion
On November 8th of 2018, a wildfire destroyed the town of Paradise and several other small communities. 12,000 homes were destroyed and 85 people died. The Camp Fire was the most destructive and the deadliest wild land fire in the history of California. Chico is located 8 miles from Paradise and we all know people who lost homes. I know 40 plus people who lost everything they had. I have lived in Chico for 20 years and I spent a lot of time in Paradise. It was a beautiful town. All of the schools from Paradise have settled in Chico. Many of the schools started getting up and running in temporary locations as early as December 5th if I remember correctly. I work for a museum a CSU Chico and we volunteered to give some free field trips and presentations for the students from Paradise. I have been an educator for a decade and I volunteered to do programs for the kids. One of those was a trip to a local charter school that had turned its gym into a temporary home for two K- 8th charter schools from Paradise. I took a few fossils from the museum and stood in front of 250 kids. Here is the kicker, every single kids in the gym had lost their home. Every single teacher had lost their home. 275 people in that gym and I was the only person there who had a home. It is fair to say that experience and my other volunteer efforts during and after the fire changed me. I used to be an outdoor science educator and a wildlife researcher. I led hikes with kids, rebuilt habitat, photographed wildlife from all over California plus my kids and I even rescued wildlife. I was snarge good at that job and I loved it. It was a wild life and my kids grew up on trails and around wild animals. In October of 2017, I broke my back and lost the ability to walk for 4 months. The injury ended that career. I was already working at museum but I knew I would never get back outdoors as an instructor. I am an insurance liability. I also stopped educating. I was just a supervisor at the museum. I did nothing with education until I started working those Paradise kids. It fired me up again and I went on a mission. Fossils on Wheels was born. Most of our spring programs are going to be freebies for kids from Paradise. We have some programs with Chico teachers and a few paying gigs too but the focus is on helping get those kids some creative education. The fire was a national news story but the recovery is not. People forget as they get on with their lives. We do not have that luxury. We now share a town with those that lost everything. The conditions for education are less than idea. Some schools landed in nice locations. Other are housed in old buildings that should not be schools. The teachers have it rough as you can imagine a teacher having it yet they are doing their job every day under the worst circumstances. I am writing this to explain further what we do but also to put the spotlight on member here that made a donation that will go to those kids, @JBMugu. He is giving our program a bunch of mammal bones and shark teeth from Sharktooth Hill. The overwhelming vast majority of those shark teeth will end up in the hands of kids who lost homes and everything they had in this world. You may not think a few shark teeth make a difference but they really do. I gave away quite a few of my own in the fall right after the fire hit. The kids were so happy to have some shark teeth. It makes a difference to them. These teeth will be sorted by a group of intermediate schools that first met 4 weeks after the fire. There school is in an old hardware store. They will sort and ID teeth that will be given to the little kids from Paradise and they will also get more teeth. Without the donation from Jesse, we would not be doing this lab and we would not have these fossils to give. His donation has given us the ability to pass on the generosity that he showed to a lot of kids who need good things to come their way. I have learned that The Fossil Forum is not a place for fossil collectors. It is made up of some really great human beings that happen to also collect fossils. It is an honor to be part of this community and it is an honor to among people who are so quick to help fellow collectors and in our case, put fossils into the hands of kids who lost everything. Thank you Jesse and thank you to everybody here who gives their time, knowledge and their fossils to help other collectors.