‘Whole community coming together’: Local family and Girl Scout Troop organizes donation drive for displaced residents

After thousands of Spokane residents were displaced from historic wildfires that ravaged Spokane, Desiree Dean wasted no time to rally behind her community.

With the help of her family and Girl Scout Troop 2454, Dean organized a donation drive in the parking lot of Safeway on Francis Avenue and Nevada Street, where displaced residents could pick up supplies as needed, with donations from generous residents showing no signs of diminishing.

“The whole community is really coming together,” Dean said.

What started off yesterday with a small table on the corner of Pines Road and Sprague Avenue offering various supplies quickly evolved to piles of food, beddings and other supplies across the Dutch Bros. parking lot.

Without the backing of an official organization or nonprofit, Dean’s donation drive was the culmination of effort from family and friends, all with one priority; helping struggling members of the community during dire times, she said.

Dean called up every friend and family member she knew who had a truck to help move supplies to Safeway’s parking lot and rented a U-Haul truck, she said.

“I was not ready for it to get as big as it did,” Dean said. “It’s been awesome.”

Dean received calls from complete strangers offering to help after her sister, Brittney Walker, posted a flyer with her phone number. People from Idaho and Oregon offered to drop things off in the middle of August when they come into town, Dean said.

Dean’s mother, Priscilla Walker, didn’t hesitate to answer her daughter’s call for help, bringing her truck and trailer to help haul the load to the Safeway parking lot, she said.

“I was like, ‘Absolutely, I’m game,’ ” Walker said.

Dean’s daughter, Kinsley, 10, was eager to lend help after a handful of her friends called, weeping as their houses had been reduced to ash, Dean said as tears welled in her eyes. She said that Kinsley was an enormous help as she greet ed those in need and showed them where each supply was.

The donation drive started at 10 a.m. Monday and was expected to carry into the evening. During the first hour, Dean estimated nearly 40 families came through to accept donations, with hundreds of others coming by to drop off supplies.

The most common supplies being picked up were hygiene products, animal food and supplies for infants, such as diapers, wipes and toys, Dean said.

Dean said has seen no shortage of emotional embraces as residents show their gratitude to what she has organized.

“I had a man that came up yesterday when I first started donations, and all he wanted was deodorant. And I didn’t have deo at the time. I was like, ‘Please come back tomorrow, we will have deodorant.’ He said ‘I appreciate that so much, I start my first job tomorrow. I was not expecting this,’ ” Dean said.

Amber Greenfield sifted through the assortment of clothes after she and her family lost her house to the Fairview fire that ignited a couple hundred feet from their house.

“I don’t know what else to get, because we don’t have a house. We can only have clothes,” she said. “We didn’t get a warning. Like, we saw it, and we ran as fast as we could.”

Sam McLellan’s daughter, Rosa Leija, 3, clung to his leg as the two came to the drive to pick up clothing, toys and food for the rest of his family after they were forced to evacuate from the Old Trails fire. McLellan and his family of 10 are staying at his grandmother’s house nearby while they figure out next steps, he said.

Dean refused to accept cash offered by Steve Burk as he pulled up in his pickup truck after doing some grocery shopping at Safeway; however, she quickly passed the cash along to a family picking up supplies.

“It’s just the right thing to do,” Burk said.

Another good Samaritan, Brennan Barnett, who works at Ziggy’s Home Improvement nearby, saw the drive and headed over to give what he had, such as hydration packs, food, bedding and clothing.

Dean’s donation drive is one of many that have been organized as a result of the devastating fires that continue to displace residents.

Dean is admittedly worried there would be some supplies left over as the drive concludes Monday evening, as she doesn’t plan on doing the drive again until around Aug. 15, she said. She plans to put the leftover supplies in a storage unit until the next time, she said.

After seeing the resonating support from the community, Dean is looking forward to running back in a couple weeks, and in the meantime, will keep her eyes peeled for whatever way to help her neighbors, she said.

“I think it’s amazing to help people that we live amongst,” Dean said.