BEACHIE CREEK FIRE
The story of the Beachie Creek Fire hits close to home. It unfolded in a heavily timbered community near Stayton, Oregon. That speck of a town is spelled differently than my own last name, but it’s pronounced precisely the same. There are other similarities. Beachie Creek is a community between towns. That’s the sort of place I grew up, between two tiny communities near a smallish town in Southern Oregon, deep in the woods of the Rogue Valley. I grew up under the threat of forest fire, but I didn’t understand it then—the woods surrounding our house and our acreage were my playground and I never once considered it as a potential danger. My mother did. She lived most days of late summer in fear. That’s when thunderheads would swell in the sky and launch lightning bolts into the scrub oak, ponderosa pines and manzanita trees enveloping us. We were so very fortunate to never have to live through the devastation that happened in the Beachie Creek Fire and others that ravaged communities near the place where I grew up. I was gutted by the story of the Tofte family.
How did it make you feel as you read it? Here’s the prompt. You don’t need to develop an intricate social media plan (one paragraph is fine), but how might you use one social media platform to help the Tofte family recover and heal? You might suggest resources or community services or perhaps there’s an evacuation plan, emergency services, mapping software, or other support out there (including mental and physical health resources) that would be of use to the family and other members/survivors of this tragedy. The only thing off limits would to be to suggest a “Go Fund Me” type of resource. Please provide your thoughtful thoughts in your responses.
