Charles Communications Associates Announces Distribution of Funds for Fire Relief for Napa and Sonoma Counties
20 February, 2018
Charles Communications Associates Announces
Distribution of Funds for Fire Relief for Napa and Sonoma Counties
One Hope Foundation Matching Campaign
February 14, 2018 – San Francisco, CA – On this Valentine’s Day, our hearts are particularly full at Charles Communications Associates as we announce the distribution of funds for Napa and Sonoma County fire relief from our successful GoFundMe campaign which raised close to $60,000 in the weeks following the devastating fires of October 2017. Motivated to spring into action and help communities who have helped so many others over the years, Charles Communications Associates Founder & President Kimberly Noelle Charles felt compelled to activate a network of journalists, colleagues, clients and friends to raise money for both immediate and midterm needs for fire relief.
The week of the fires, which broke out Sunday October 9, 2017, the Charles Communications Associates team, along with a network of peers including Beck Hopkins of Folio Wine Company, Katie Calhoun of Calhoun & Company and Tia Butts of Tia Butts PR, mobilized a supply run to 7 different shelters and organizations in Sonoma and Napa Counties with funds from the campaign, as well as the generous in kind support of Target and Costco. Recipients included the MentorMe organization based at the Cavanaugh Recreational Center in Petaluma which created four shelters for those displaced by the fires. In Napa, supplies were distributed to Puertas Abiertas, the Salvation Army, Mentis and the Cope Family Center.
Generous donors from around the country contributed to a fund that exceeded initial expectations, prompting Kimberly Charles to implement both immediate and longer term needs for communities that were affected given the scale of devastation, which included 44 lives lost, 162,344 acres burned (Atlas, Nunns, Tubbs and Pocket fires) and 7,799 structures lost, including two dozen wineries in the two counties which were either fully or partially destroyed. The fires were part of a statewide firestorm which has been recorded as the deadliest and costliest in California history.The latest numbers indicate losses of upwards of $8 billion alone.
Wanting to specifically address communities that support and provide the wine industry with labor and services, Charles Communications Associates (CCA) and its peer team identified Undocufund.org, Ole Health Clinic and Support707.org to receive a total of $37,000. The ONEHOPE Foundation, led by Jake Kloberdanz, generously offered to match the funds for both Ole Health and Undocufund in addition to its very successfully separate campaign for fire relief.
The GoFundMe campaign is still active and accepting donations for ongoing needs by contributing here: https://www.gofundme.com/fire-relief-napa-sonoma-counties. Ever resilient, the communities and towns are in the midst of rebuilding much of which will take years to recover given the scale of loss.
About Charles Communications Associates
Celebrating its 15th anniversary in 2018, Charles Communications Associates, LLC (CCA) is an independent creative marketing communications and public relations firm based in San Francisco, California, that helps local and global companies create, build, and launch brands. Recognized as one of the most effective marketing firms in the wine industry, CCA is also known for success in the gourmet, natural, and organic food and beverage categories, as well as for top shelf spirits and luxury products marketing.
Please socialize with us @CharlesComm on Twitter, and @AlltheSwirl on Instagram and Facebook.
For more information, please contact Kimberly Noelle Charles at kcharles@charlescomm.com or 415-701-9463.
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