Lake Area Rotary Club Association launches new fire recovery fundraising effort

By ELIZABETH LARSON

CLEARLAKE, Calif. — With a new and immediate need for fire recovery arising due to the Cache fire, the Lake Area Rotary Club Association is restarting its fundraising efforts.

The nonprofit association, known more commonly as LARCA, has relaunched its website, where donations can be made to help with Cache fire recovery.

During the course of several years, beginning in 2015 after the Valley fire, LARCA raised more than $3 million for fire relief, said Clearlake City Councilman Russ Cremer.

Both Cremer and Mayor Dirk Slooten, before they joined the Clearlake City Council, had significant involvement in LARCA’s past fundraising successes.

The funds LARCA raised have helped in a variety of ways, from assisting survivors to improving an after school program in Middletown, supporting an integrated public alert warning system, helping with reforestation efforts, donating to a fire communications tower projectand offering assistance to senior centers facing challenges with COVID-19.

Cremer, working to set up an evacuation shelter at the city of Clearlake’s senior and community center on Saturday night, said LARCA also worked with other groups — such as the Lower Lake Community Action Agency — to make upgrades to the senior center to outfit it for emergencies. That included the shower trailer now housed at the center.

The Cache fire, fully contained at 83 acres, has destroyed and estimated 56 homes and 81 outbuildings.

City officials have reported that among those living in the fire area were some of the community’s poorest members, and that many of them did not have insurance.

So Cremer said LARCA is once again taking up the fundraising standard with its Emergency Relief Fund.

Cremer said 100% of the funds go to providing fire relief. Donations are tax-deductible.

Donations can be made online or checks may be sent to the LARCA Emergency Relief Fund, P.O. Box 2921, Clearlake, CA 95422.

For more information, contact LARCA through its website at https://www.larca5130.org/contact.

Email Elizabeth Larson at elarson@lakeconews.com. Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.