Lizzy and Alicia have never met in person, but together they have helped hundreds of families-in-need prepare for this year’s fire season.
They are members of the Facebook group Smoke Season Support, which encourages community-building during fire events. Lizzy and Alicia, both moms, wanted to do something to help others in advance of this year’s fires. Lizzy had given birth right as last year’s fires were ramping up and she remembered the stress in thinking about her baby’s first breaths of unhealthy air. With this in mind, they decided to leverage their networks and social media parenting groups to help raise money for air purifiers for families that couldn’t otherwise afford them.
After connecting with the Homeless Prenatal Program (HPP), Alica began calling air purifier companies, hoping to secure a discount. Instead, she secured a donation of 500 air purifiers and replacement filters from the Swedish company Blueair (a donation worth over $150K) as part of their Freedom to Breathe campaign. HPP will be distributing these air purifiers to families moving into housing in coming weeks.
Lizzy and Alicia will continue to crowdsource for additional support and have launched a GoFundMe. They hope to be able to leverage this corporate gift with donations from the community to ensure that all families have what they need — including masks, emergency bags and food — this fire season.
If you would like to join our efforts, you may do so via HPP’s donation form, make sure to select “Clean Air Fund for SF Families” on the “Please designate my gift to support” dropdown menu. Or you may donate via GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/c4abefac.
