Profiles, Off-Campus Profiles, Features

“We’re here to help you”: Lily Kreisberg’s Donation Drive Aids LA Wildfire Victims

The mass devastation the LA wildfires caused caught everyone off guard.

The fire didn’t discriminate. Childhood homes, elementary schools, and beloved museums were all reduced to ash. Insurance won’t cover these types of losses.

Lily Kreisberg, BC ’22, wanted to find a way to help those whose lives had been upended and whose belongings were destroyed, so she organized a clothing and toiletries donation drive.

Kreisberg, a senior coordinator of field publicity and events at Lionsgate, gathered over 100 volunteers and opened a pop-up shop called Westside Gives at the Lionsgate office. The pop-up ultimately collected over 10,000 donations for wildfire victims across LA.

Kreisberg has always been passionate about helping her local community. She recalled volunteering at soup kitchens and animal shelters, as well as sorting through donated clothes over the years.

But this presented an entirely new level of challenges.

Originally open only on Tuesday and Wednesday, Westside Gives saw such high demand that it expanded its hours to stay open through Friday.

Kreisberg’s efforts attracted national support and attention.

“Mark Ruffalo posted what we were doing, and The Weeknd posted what we were doing,” Kreisberg said. “We were on two news stations. Things like that really helped amplify everything.”

Westside Gives started without a website or social media, relying purely on word of mouth and social media to spread its message and resources.

“Whenever we would ask people, ‘Oh, how did you hear about this?’ They were like, ‘My friend in Connecticut saw The Weeknd’s story and then sent it to me,’” Kreisberg said.

The drive began in Santa Monica with Anne Allegrette, who started collecting donations at her home. Kreisberg, a family friend, brought some items to donate, and when she arrived to drop them off, she noticed that Allegrette’s house was overflowing with clothes and had run out of space.

Kreisberg turned to Noah E. Wood III, a co-worker at Lionsgate who oversees operations, for help. Together, they moved the donations from Allegrette’s house to the Lionsgate corporate office.

As they moved the drive to Lionsgate, the donations continued to pour in.

“I had everything picked up,” Wood said. “And then a U-Haul truck showed up full. I believe it was from one of the football players of the Houston Oilers who had made a donation or collection and had it all delivered to our offices. Then people just kept showing up with donated goods so quickly that we found ourselves just buried in bags and bags of goods.”

Over 100 volunteers spread out on the first floor of the Lionsgate offices. They folded and sorted through countless bags of items, categorizing them by size, gender, and quality.

According to Wood, the first day of sorting lasted about 14 hours.

Each accepted donation was tagged and laid out to make it easy for attendees to find what they needed. Whatever each person asked for, they did their best to provide.

Kreisberg prioritized creating a welcoming environment at the center, according to Peter Gagliano, Kreisberg’s supervisor at Lionsgate. She aimed to make it as inviting as possible for people navigating the challenging process of rebuilding their lives after the fires.

“We’d heard of other experiences where everything’s kind of just thrown in a pile, and Lily really wanted to make it where it’s a welcoming experience,” Gagliano said.

The turnout was overwhelming, Kreisberg said, with a steady stream of people shopping, but the team worked tirelessly, curating a diverse selection of goods to ensure everyone’s needs were met.

“We got over 500 impacted people to come through, and they were able to get so many clothing items, shoes, ranging from brand new to only very gently used,” Kreisberg said. “And that was a big thing that we wanted to kind of emphasize. These people impacted needed and deserve the best quality of things.”

Several volunteers, including Gagliano, were tasked with purchasing new toiletries, socks, and undergarments, using both cash and Venmo donations.

“Over the course of probably three, four days, we went to 20 stores each and cleared out as many places as we could to keep the toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorants, mouthwash, new boxes of underwear stocked as much as we could,” Gagliano said.

Kreisberg’s pop-up shop not only provided materialistic support but emotional support as well.

“Some people just needed time to just cry and grieve and for someone to listen, so there were a lot of tears,” Wood said. “[Kreisberg] wanted it to be a safe space for the fire victims and she wanted them to feel well-cared for while they were at Lionsgate and in the space.”

The first guests who arrived at the pop-up were a 92-year-old woman and her daughter. Shortly after entering, they received a call from their insurance company informing them that they would not be reimbursed for the items they lost in the fire.

“It was a hard moment and for it to be the first—we had no idea what we were going to expect.” Kreisberg said. “I think that kind of made me realize I’m about to meet a lot of people who are going through things I’m not understanding right now, and I need to just be really empathetic to that.”

Kreisberg tried to make the center a place where people felt calm and comfortable by playing soft music, offering emotional support, and adjusting to meet individual needs.

Some families brought young children, which sometimes made it difficult for parents to shop productively. Wood recalled a moment when Kreisberg took care of a child, no more than five years old, so his mother could be free from distractions.

“It was a huge help to her because she had to manage him—looking after him and keeping him safe,” Wood said.

Donation centers are often thought to primarily serve individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The widespread impact of the fires across Los Angeles, though, has brought victims from a diverse range of socio-economic statuses.

“We saw people who arrived at the center in nicer, more expensive cars who had nothing,” Kreisberg said. “They needed the clothes to restart. And then we also have people who were the housekeepers and the nannies … they lost not only their homes, they lost their jobs and that was a big, big group of people that we saw, too.”

For some victims, walking into a donation center was unfamiliar and overwhelming. Kreisberg said many became emotional as they faced the reality of starting over.

“There were a lot of people who walked in, realized what they were doing, and were really upset,” Kreisberg said. “Some people felt really embarrassed to be there and they asked to shop alone, so we would close it to other people so people could get their privacy.”

Both Kreisberg and Wood recognized the importance of providing emotional support to victims of such traumatic experiences.

“Just being compassionate and empathetic is really constructive and helpful for someone who’s going through something so traumatic,” Wood said. “Give them hugs and say, ‘We’re with you, we stand with you, we support you. I’m so sorry that this has happened to you, and that’s why we’re here. We’re here to help you.’”

Kreisberg recognizes the lasting impact of the wildfires on the community and remains committed to making a difference.

“LA is going through a lot right now, and, even though the wildfires are in a good containment level right now, it’s gonna affect us for years to come,” Kreisberg said. “Everyone should be gentle with each other. When something like this is going to happen, do one thing for one person that you wish you could do for everybody.”

February 2, 2025

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