Theodore Roosevelt’s antidote to crippling sadness was to “Get action.”
“Get action. Do things; be sane; don’t fritter away your time; create, act, take a place wherever you are and be somebody. Get action.”
For a dedicated lazybones such as I, this formula flies in the face of the comfort and healing of a good book, a soft couch, fluffy socks and hot cocoa. But get action I did, one day in Altadena. I blame René Amy, only a bit older than I, but ever so much more active.
Ride along as he went about his work on the Great Altadena Poppy Seed Project? Why not?
We met at Jose and Sandra Valenzuela’s Grocery Outlet, site of many a distribution line after the Eaton fire, an unofficial town square, also where the giant “Altadena Strong- We Will Rebuild!” banner Amy ordered still hangs, foisted up there when people were still reeling over all the loss. Amy would press to include that exclamation point in all the banner’s descriptions if he could. It’s important.
Victor “Ving” Fung was there, touching up his famous “Greetings from Altadena” mural, repairing spots where the fire made the paint bubble. All of Fung’s murals in town survived the fire, although the one on the wall of Mariposa Junction’s Ace Hardware may have to be torn down.
It’s easier, Fung shrugs, to do it over. He’s willing to put in the work.
Then making like Johnny Poppyseed and distributing packets of poppy seeds around businesses around town. First, 7,500 for High Point Academy, the Pasadena school that lost a building, two classrooms and two offices in the fire. This will give us an opportunity for hope, she said.
A visit with Meredith Miller, owner of Webster’s Pharmacy, who was that day hosting dogs from Pasadena Humane, and listening to fire survivors share how their pets are saving them from post-fire stress and anxiety.
Clara Zervigon, community engagement and programming coordinator for CORE, happily accepted seed packets, one of many places people can pick up seeds for free. She also have us a tour of their space, with meeting rooms open to the community where they’ve held everything from legal clinics to town halls.
“The most important thing is agency,” she said, helping survivors feel in control when so many things feel beyond that, and giving them a sense of place.
CORE has distributed $3.5 million unrestricted cash aid, deploying case managers and offering a smoke remediation program in the 11 months since the Eaton fire.
Valerie Zavala of Altadena Heritage accepts 300 packets to give to people who RSVP’d for Altadena Heritage and Altadena Historical Society’s holiday event, which featured historian Michele Zack and the re-release of her lauded “Altadena: Between Wilderness and City.”
To all of them, Amy dispenses advice on how best to poppify Altadena: “It can grow in full sun or full shade, so sprinkle widely. From such a small seed, happy California poppy plants can grow to the size of a dinner plate but like a teen, they want their own space. Water gently.”
Amy is looking forward to spring, when the fruit of his labor hopefully will result in a superbloom of the state flower, a sly long-term goal being attracting not only pollinators, but people who will shop Altadena and help it rebuild.
He isn’t one for dwelling on the pain and loss.
“That ain’t me,” Amy said. “You gotta move forward. I feed into, ‘What helps?’ I think of the 19 lives lost damn near everyday. I see the memorial tree at the Altadena Library and think there ought to be a grove of 19 trees in a circle, giving shade.”
Alexsander Cullins meets us on the aptly-named Poppyfields Drive to deliver Realtex Homes’ $1,000 donation to the poppy project.
“We’re here to help everyone rebuild, and we wanted to make more of an impact than just building homes,” Cullins said.
Amy, who continues to endangered water trees around Altadena for the nonprofit Amigos de los Rios, is hoping more businesses and groups will help his poppy dream. He’s already properly poppified Altadena Town & Country Club and the 55-acre Summer Kids location, as well as postage-sized lots. The site of St. Mark’s School got around 4 million seeds.
A crew even climbed up to where Altadena’s Star of Palawoo sits in its solar-powered majesty and poppified that area, with help from longtime resident Bill Westphal, who reconstructed the star pre-fire with fellow residents.
On the to-do list: the Nuccio’s Nurseries property.
Amy and his team of volunteers, from Boy Scouts to California Climate Action Corps members have so far seeded more than 600 properties, on their way to distributing 250 million seeds total.
The morning visits, of course, are asterisked by who lost their homes (Westphal, Zack, and Amy himself), whose homes or businesses are standing (Zavala and Miller).
There’s an inherent exhaustion in the faces of Altadenans, Amy admits, even as so many continue to work and toil and do what’s in front of them.
It helps to think about spring.