PolyStrong: Our Community Comes Together to Face Fire Losses

On Tuesday, January 7, Los Angeles County residents waited nervously as reports of regional high winds circulated. California is no stranger to Santa Ana winds or wildfire season, but the gusty conditions sent a chill across the community. By Wednesday, fires had erupted across LA County, particularly the Eaton Canyon fires near Altadena, where many Poly community members call home; and many students have learned from the natural habitat. 

Poly leadership worked around the clock, making important decisions such as closing the school due to unsafe conditions and conversations about relief efforts. As news emerged about those affected, Head of School John Bracker reminded us of the community’s “resiliency and generosity in adversity and despair,” as we have witnessed throughout the school’s nearly 120-year history.

It didn’t take long for Poly to act as an outpost supporting impacted families and the greater community. A donation drive, spearheaded by the chairs of Poly’s Parent Organizations (PO), Student Community Engagement Coordinator Renée Larios, Lower School Director Theresa Tran, Assistant Head of School, Enrollment and Strategic Initiatives Lisa Wu, and Assistant Director of Extended and Summer Programs Kevin Austin, emerged on Saturday, but not without important input and learning from other community organizations. 

Renée participated in a meeting of over 90 Pasadena area organizations already doing crucial mutual aid work and identified the community's needs. From there, in just 18 hours, PO leaders transformed the gym into a donation center, with thousands of essential supplies such as clothing, bottled water, toiletries, linens, shoes, backpacks, and more. 

“For three days, the gymnasium has served as a gathering space for the Poly community,” said K-12 PO Chair Laura Unanue P ’20, ’23 ’25 ’32. “To be reunited with friends, faculty, and staff and bear collective witness to this unimaginable trauma has been, I hope, a small step in the recovery process. When people walk into the gym and see the volume of donations—the parents, the students, the faculty, and staff working side by side, sorting clothes, making toiletry and hygiene kits, and assisting people in selecting items—it’s fortifying, reassuring, and the most basic demonstration of our love and care for one another.”

Not only have parents been essential to this relief effort, but students, faculty, and staff have rallied around the efforts. More than 100 students volunteered over the three days, along with close to 200 parent volunteers. If a need emerged, be it lunch for volunteers or a needed item, many stepped up from the group, offering to do a run for supplies. 

Rory Xanders ’19 learned of the effort and was present alongside other alumni all three days in the gym. “Being able to volunteer at Poly's donation drive was an amazing experience, as it highlighted how many other people wanted to support all of their displaced community members in some way. In the aftermath of such a terrible tragedy that has impacted so many families and communities across L.A. County, it has been inspiring to see how the Poly and wider Pasadena and Altadena communities have come together to support those displaced by the Eaton fire.”

The Poly Relief Fund (PRF) also emerged to provide immediate assistance for temporary housing, supplies, and recovery efforts. 100% of the contributions directly help Poly families, faculty, and staff. The fund will provide critical assistance for temporary housing, supplies, and recovery efforts, ensuring that our Poly community is supported and will not face these challenges alone. 

The PRF reached an amazing milestone of securing over $1 million for displaced Poly faculty, staff, and current families, with more than 600 individual contributions worldwide. “Thank you for creating a supportive Poly Community and inspiring commitment for your students and education for how they should lead their lives in the future,” shared Beverley Johnson, GP ’27. Poly has already provided housing to community members who have lost everything, and it continues to support those in evacuated areas or those facing financial hardship.

Our thoughts and actions, as ever, remain with the students. In this moment of difficulty, Poly’s students have shown how resourceful and resilient they are. As classes resumed this Tuesday, embraces of hope and support could be seen rippling across Poly’s campus. In the Lower School and Middle School, faculty and staff warmly greeted students as the students arrived for morning drop-off. In the Upper School, ASB leaders passed out beloved Lucky Boy breakfast burritos as students streamed in and reconnected with one another. From Renée’s purview, she has seen the best of Poly through our students, acting as the most caring, mature versions of themselves.

 

As the weeks and months continue, there is much ahead for the Poly community to restore and rebuild. Poly’s commitment to our community remains steadfast and purposeful. “We will be here indefinitely with goods and services for the Poly community so that when they are resettled or when they are getting to a place where they can put their thoughts together for what their needs are; they can reach back out,” said Upper School PO Chair Jess Connolly P ’26 ’27 ’30 ’31. “We’re not going away.”