The devastation wrought by the Northern California Wildfires hit especially close to home for Roseville High School science teacher Erin Granucci.

After hearing about the fire in Santa Rosa and learning about the numerous connections she had with displaced victims, Granucci decided to advertise the need for donations for these families.

“I know this is affecting a lot of people, people who have lived in that area and have family in that area,” Granucci said. “We have a few faculty members who have family that live not only in Sonoma and Santa Rosa, but the also the Napa area.”

Two of the displaced families, the Tunzis and the Seargeants, are friends of Granucci’s. Both were part of families who managed to safely escaped the fire, but lost everything that they had.

Granucci and Judi Seargeant-Holmes have been friends since high school and still talk every day, even though the two live over two hours apart.

As Seargeant-Holmes had just moved into her home a few days before the fire, a majority of her family’s furniture still had yet to be unboxed during the time the fire took place. However, despite the losses she endured, Seargeant-Holmes was also stunned at the sheer amount of donations and help all the victims received from the community.

“To have so much love and support that you actually feel blessed is pretty amazing,” Seargeant-Holmes said. “The influx of donations has been heart-warming.”

Seargeant-Holmes took the opportunity to reach out to a few familiar families and has redistributed some of the excess donations to other them.

“The donations have been able to bring a smile to lots of families’ faces,” Seargeant-Holmes said.

Another friend of Granucci’s, Jenn Tunzi, was a past student of hers when Granucci taught at Cordova High School. Her home was also one of the many destroyed in the devastating fire.
According to Granucci, both families evacuated safely, with Seargeant-Holmes’ family choosing to temporarily staying at their parents’ house.

“She has since moved her family back in with her parents temporarily, but they have nothing,” Granucci said.

Jenn’s husband is a firefighter battling the flames while his family seeks a sense of normalcy, as the family lost everything except clothing and other baby supplies.

“She was able to escape the fire but with a diaper bag and basically just a bag of clothes for the other ones,” Granucci said. “So she too has two children while her husband is still out trying to save people’s homes.”

Beginning with her close friends, Granucci started to collect items for the victims of the fires.

“So what we decided to do as a start up for our new Medical Club, but also biomed students, is collect as many items for the kids in focus,” Granucci said. “We’re looking for boardgames, videogames, art supplies, books, outdoor toys, and bikes.”

Granucci welcomes the donations of all students and staff. There are also numerous opportunities to either donate or volunteer around Santa Rosa and Napa county.