95 Wildfire Victims Become Recipients Of RV After Losing Their Homes To The Devastation

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Thousands of families lose their homes to wildfires on a yearly basis. They have lost everything and have been forced to rebuild their lives with just the clothes on their backs. This is a big task, especially when they find themselves strapped for cash.

People need a home, especially if they have kids to think about as well. While many have kindly donated their time and their money to helping these victims, finding a home takes time. Hence, one man found the perfect solution to this dilemma.

Recreational vehicles, or RVs, are a great way to go around the country and see the sights. It’s also become homes to those who prefer to lead nomadic lives. And gratitude must be given to a father-daughter team who has made the effort to do something more to those who need shelter. These RVs have also become a lifeline for those who have lost their beloved homes to California’s latest outbreak of devastating wildfires.

The RV project has become the brainchild of Woody Faircloth. He came up with a nonprofit program called EmergencyRV.org. This matches folks who are willing to donate their spacious campers to a worthy cause and those in need will be the lucky beneficiaries.


Faircloth is often seen with his 9-year-old daughter, Luna. They have, at present, gone for a ride together in the last few months, and during this time, they have delivered 95 motorhomes to California area wildfire victims who otherwise might need to wait months and months at a time just to avail of emergency housing.  While they have achieved so much in a short span of time, the organization Faircloth runs right now still currently has 100 families on its waiting list.

Faircloth has always been a civic-minded individual. He first got the idea for the charity in 2018. Like many of the folks that year, this Colorado-based dad tuned to the news coverage to find out more about the California’s deadly Camp Fire. This devastation has managed to incinerate a total of 153,336 acres and destroyed hundreds of homes. The worst part was that this happened during Thanksgiving week, a time where families stay home to celebrate with friends and relatives.

Faircloth heard about the story of a man who’d lost everything he owned but managed to escape the inferno in his mobile home. This story resonated with him and it made such an impact that he wanted to put his empathy to good use. He was further inspired by how blessed that man felt because while he lost a lot, he was just grateful to have a place to spend the holiday. Faircloth them turned to Luna to know what she thought. He talked to his daughter about finding an RV and delivering it to a family just so the victim could finally have a place to call home during the Christmas season. He could only imagine what the victims have gone through and he knew he had to step in to help.

“We were watching some of what’s going on out there and talking about what if that was us and what would we do,” Faircloth said when he talked to Denver 7 about his organization. He further explained, “And I told (my daughter) what the idea was and she was 100 percent on board. She said, ‘God and Santa Claus would be really proud of us for this.’” Hence, Faircloth started to launch a GoFundMe campaign to finance the first RV that he and Luna wanted. As soon as they had what they needed, they delivered the RV at a dropped off in California.

As word got around and spread, people started reaching out to him via social media during their journey. Many have opted to donate their motorhomes. It was then that EmergencyRV took solid shape and become what it is today.

As a father of four who works hard in the telecom industry, Faircloth says that he had to juggle the many responsibilities he has. He had his share of challenges during this time, but this didn’t stop him from moving forward. He plans to further expand EmergencyRV’s outreach to include more fire and other natural disaster sites. During this time, he also has hopes to ramp up response times too because this is what is most needed.

Over the past two months, Faircloth and Luna have made total of 40 hours of roundtrip from Denver to California and back. They did this on three separate weekends. Many of the mobile home recipients are firefighters and other first responders. They were shown gratitude because of their unwaning efforts battling the blazes, and while these responders were hard at work, they were not able to prevent their own homes from going up in flames along the way.

One such man is named George Wolley. He actually lost his own home to the Dixie Fire on August 4th.

“We fought the fire until we couldn’t fight it no more. We couldn’t stop it. We did our best,” Wolley explained when he was interviewed by the Associated Press. “Before I got that RV, I felt like I was a burden on everybody that helped me… I slept a lot in tents and in my car. It gave me a place to go.”


Fairlcoth’s organization continues to grow and evolve to this very day, but the original sentiments behind his humanitarian and selfless efforts remain the same. He says that he remains thankful for the many blessings he has. He also knows that he’s in the lucky and blessed position to help those who have nothing.

“Presently collapsed in the back of an old RV beside this little kid with no front teeth who gets me up and moving every day determined to do something better than yesterday,” Faircloth wrote in a 2018 post. He had stated this when Luna was just 6 years old. He also said,  “We are so lucky to be exhausted. We are so lucky to be able to go home soon. There are so many thanks yous to say that have not yet been said so to all of you—thank you.”

While Woody and Luna Faircloth are grateful for what they have, the rest of the world are just as grateful for the charitable man and his equally selfless daughter. He and Luna has proven the world that when it comes to helping, age isn’t a factor. What matters most is intention.

 

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