Their Best at the Worst

When stress hits, you find out who people are.

When the wildfires scorched greater Los Angeles Jan. 7 and devastated wide areas of thriving neighborhoods, City, County, LADWP and State employees responded, as you’ll read in this month’s standout issue. And the Club responded, too. City employees and Club staff shone bright. Their best came through.

Putting together this month’s Alive! reminded me of our efforts when COVID infected the world in 2020. The Alive! News changed gears to create a comprehensive inventory of extraordinary efforts by the City. We used that as a model of how to handle the wildfires this time.

The Club Responds

Club staff responded in a big way. During COVID, we created the Club Care Team, where our employees called every single one of our Members – approaching 50,000 – to check on their status and see how they were coping.

The Club Care Team reactivated for the wildfire emergency. The Team of 12 Club staffers made more than 1,000 phone calls over two weeks; we learned that 14 Members lost their homes, and 40 requested our help supplying staples, made possible by generous donations by Members like you to the Club’s separate charity partner, Club Angels. Thanks to Lupe Lira, Club Director of Retail and Ecommerce, for organizing the Club Care Team.

And through Club Vice President of Business Development Arlene Herrero — she’s also Executive Director of Club Angels — we teamed with several other employee associations to collect and sort clothing, personal care products and Club merchandise to those in need. Arlene represented both the Club and Club Angels at the collection. That was a tremendous day at the Club warehouse!

Members, I hope and pray you are safe from the wildfires. I greatly value you, our City employees, and I treasure the Club staff, too. They are the City, and the Club, at their very best.

Our staff members won’t brag about what they’ve done, so I will. Club Members should be reminded that they are served by Club representatives who are both consummate professionals and excellent people, too. I am proud of what they have done.

A Picture’s Worth

We thank LAFD Capt. Frank Aguirre for permission to publish his extraordinary photo of an LAFD squad attacking flames in Studio City. As soon as we saw the image, we knew we wanted it on our cover. Special thanks, too, go to Retired Firefighter John Hicks, Club Member and editor of LAFRA’s Grapevine magazine, for connecting us.

Members, I hope and pray you are safe from the wildfires. I greatly value you, our public service employees, and I treasure the Club staff, too. They are at their very best.