To provide support for those in the school and greater Los Angeles communities affected by the recent California fires, Prefect Council created a Facebook support group to give students information and support. Additionally, an event was held on the quad on Oct. 29 that encouraged students and faculty to write letters thanking the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) for their service, which was organized by Gabriela Martinez-Celaya ’20 and Britt Gronemeyer ’20.

Prefect Council creates HW Fire Relief Page

On the Facebook page, called the HW Fire Relief Page, Junior Prefect Chelsea Cho ’21 invited people suffering from the fires to ask for help from the community. Unaffected students were also welcomed on the page so that they could provide their own support.

“We hope that you’ve been doing alright over the past few days,” Cho wrote on the page. “Thanks for looking out for each other, and stay safe!”

Seniors write letters to Los Angeles firefighters

The letter-writing event, which was led by thirty senior girls, took place on the quad and successfully produced many letters.

“We were chatting about how we appreciate the firefighters a lot for all of their hard work and how they are willing to put themselves in such dangerous situations to help the greater good,” Martinez-Celaya said. “We were all bouncing off thoughts and gratefulness from one another and just reflecting on how we owed our safety to these humans we didn’t even know. I realized that the firefighters themselves might be happy to hear all this praise, so I suggested we tell them through letters written by students.”