Their home is destroyed; what can I do for them?

October 25, 2007 10:54 PM

What can I give or do for my coworker, whose parents' house (his childhood home) just burned down in the wildfires in southern California? Is there something they could use?
posted by holympus to Human Relations (10 answers total)

That is awful & I hope they saved themost important artifacts of their life.

If all was lost you could start with a nice photo of your co-worker, if you have one. They may have lost all their family photos.
posted by pgoes at 11:01 PM on October 25, 2007

Well, it may be crass, but, cash.

They're going to be renting hotel rooms, having to buy clothing, replace prescription medicine and toiletries, etc. Something touching while nice won't provide as much relief as cash.
posted by orthogonality at 11:10 PM on October 25, 2007

Could you donate some time off to him? Get enough people together and he could fly home.
posted by effugas at 11:50 PM on October 25, 2007 [1 favorite]

go to your boss/supervisor/hr people and suggest you start a secret office pool. collect enough for a plane ticket, rental car and home depot splurge. book a flight, give him a week paid leave and plunk him onto an airplane.

enabling this person to be their for the family, to give some moral support to them without worrying about the job, is the greatest thing you could ever do.
posted by krautland at 12:02 AM on October 26, 2007 [5 favorites]

Is there some way you can help prepare yourself to cover for him at work, while he goes to help his parents? If such a thing were possible, it seems it would be a huge boon that only a coworker could grant.
posted by amtho at 12:43 AM on October 26, 2007

krautland's idea is absolutely superb.
posted by Malor at 1:50 AM on October 26, 2007

I had a coworker whose house burned, and yeah, cash and gift certificates were the best thing for her -- giving her actual stuff right after it happened would have been useless, because she had no place to put it.
posted by JanetLand at 5:15 AM on October 26, 2007

krautland has the right idea, but maybe flying said co-worker into what is still pretty much a disaster area might be less-than-helpful. Perhaps fly the parents to the co-worker?
posted by JMOZ at 6:28 AM on October 26, 2007

Good ideas above.

Could you go on Facebook or contact his alma mater? Get yearbooks, class photos, childhood photos. Scan it all and put it on a DVD. Give it to him once his family has somewhere to keep it.
posted by acoutu at 9:40 AM on October 26, 2007

Ask. Seriously, ask him. The last thing you want to do is (hypothetical) buy him a plane ticket that he can't use because it's headed to SD and the folks have evacuated to Tulsa.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 11:23 AM on October 26, 2007