Fire Victims Given $1,000 Gift Cards

Inside the Sierra Madre YMCA, camps, membership and gift cards were given to survivors.

Outside the Y, long lines stretched as people waited for aid.

Executive Director of the Palisades Malibu YMCA (now the Lowe Family Y) Jim Kirtley continues to advocate for fire survivors. More than 50 members of the Pali Y received a thousand-dollar gift card from Amazon to help with rebuilding and other necessities at a January 29 event at the Sierra Madre YMCA.

The event was for Palisades and Altadena survivors. People had to qualify for the event through their Y and with identification or a utility bill. There were probably about five hundred people lined up around a long grass yard/field, waiting.

At a brief press conference, President and CEO of Metropolitan YMCA Victor Dominguez said the Y has a work force of 2,500 and more than 15,000 volunteers who are all working to help fire survivors. He said the Y was there for people after the fires, and a year later, the Y is still helping survivors. He thanked the Y’s corporate partners Amazon and the California Community Foundation.

The Foundation gave $350,000 in gift cards, which the Y was distributing to survivors on Thursday.

Amazon Executive David Ambroz said the fire was a deeply personal matter for him. He was asked why. He said his foster son’s home was impacted. Ambroz grew up in foster care, finding solace in libraries and schools, before going to Vassar and then UCLA Law.

Ambroz said that a few months before the fire, Amazon had restocked supplies at the Belmont Wildfire Relief Hub  – including equipment for firefighters and supplies for survivors. After the fire, Amazon had donated more than 500,000 relief items to victims.

28^th District Congresswoman Judy Chu, who represents Altadena residents, thanked the Y and Amazon.

Congressmember Judy Chu spoke about the successes of the Y and about the challenges that still faces survivors, including lack of Federal Aid.

“I see tons of survivors,” she said. “This fire devastated our community with 9,000 structures destroyed, of those 6,000 were homes. There were 19 deaths.

After the fire, “There were so many goods given that were deeply needed and now it’s being done again.”

As people are starting to receive settlement checks/compensation from Southern California Edison for the cause of the Altadena fire, Chu said “settlement funds should not be taxed. Every dollar needs to go to rebuilding.”

She added, “We need the supplemental $34 billion in federal aid.  People are underinsured or not insured.”

She told CTN that California, Texas and North Carolina had not been given any supplemental aid by President Donald Trump.

Chu explained that governors have to ask for aid from the President, then he makes the request and it goes to Congress for approval. She said Congress would approve it immediately if the President would make the request.

Lowe Family YMCA Director Jim Kirtley (right) welcomed Pacific Palisades residents to the event..

“We will continue to support our community and our community members for the long haul of this journey,” Kirtley said. “The particular event helped families from both the Palisades Fire and the Eaton fire with resources such as free Y memberships for the remainder of 2026 and financial support through gift cards.

In addition to gift cards and memberships, the Y was offering free summer day camps and resident camps for kids and access to free mental health.

Kirtley said, “We offer a lot of resources and if we don’t have a specific resource, we probably have a partner that does.” He pointed out that Change Reaction had a sign-up sheet at the event and are able to offer people help with rent, who might be losing that assistance from insurance. People can go to this nonprofit for help (or go to the Y, who will put one in touch with the right party).