Sonoma County students set to mark first anniversary of October fires

Sept. 23--Students of the Anova Center for Education, a north Santa Rosa school for children and young adults with autism that was gutted by the Tubbs fire, will spend Oct. 9 encountering giraffes and watching cheetahs during a scheduled field trip to the Safari West wildlife preserve.

The same morning, students in the Mark West district will deliver and plant five male ginkgo trees at a park in Mark West Estates, and other trees in Larkfield Estates.

Later in the day, Schaefer Charter School students -- many of whom lived in the surrounding Coffey Park neighborhood, where the Tubbs fire leveled entire blocks -- will hear from a motivational speaker.

There's no handbook for how school communities should acknowledge the first anniversary of the most devastating siege of wildfire in California history. Each school affected by the fires is finding its own way to remember and reflect.

"For the anniversary coming up, I think there's a lot of mixed emotions," said Megan Furze, a first-grade teacher at Schaefer Charter School. Furze attended the school as a student and lost her childhood home nearby. "I think people are so sad to relive the day in their head."

Schaefer Charter School, which was spared from the flames, nevertheless closed for months afterward because of toxic debris and ash. About 100 students transferred out of the school. Some remaining students now travel longer distances to make it to class, or are still in limbo as homes are being rebuilt, said Principal Kathy Harris.

"Nobody that I've talked to wants to do a 'Let's remember fires' event," Harris said. "Our families are still living and suffering with the effects of the fires every day."

Educators and administrators brainstorming ideas to mark the fire anniversary at schools have come up with an assortment of events that don't fit one mold. At Schaefer, Furze recruited Mister Brown, a speaker who visited with Redding schools affected by the Carr fire this year, to talk with students about life lessons and making good choices. Furze hopes Mister Brown's visit will encourage students to speak about their emotions around the anniversary of the fires.

"For a lot of kids, it's hard to talk about because it's a sad, tragic thing," Furze said.

In an effort "to come back to school on a positive note" after the fires, Schaefer hosted a pancake breakfast earlier this month for the Piner Olivet district. Over 400 people attended, Harris said.

"It was beautiful," she said.

Hidden Valley Elementary School, which lost its satellite campus in the fires, plans to have a similar type of gathering on Oct. 9. A free pasta dinner will be hosted by the school's parent faculty organization that evening for the community to gather, reflect, and heal, according to the event flyer.

"Everybody was affected in some way last year," said Hidden Valley principal Brad Coscarelli. "It's a tough time for everybody, but we're trying to make it a positive family event."

Hidden Valley students are also gathering gift cards, toiletries, bath toys, shoes, clothing, journals, hair ties, socks, Hot Wheels and other trinkets to put in about 150 shoeboxes they plan to send to two schools affected by the Carr fire in Shasta County. The idea comes full circle, as Hidden Valley students had received shoeboxes from an elementary school student in Redding just weeks after the Tubbs fire.

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