The Palisades Fire
The Flores home, destroyed by the Palisades fire
The aftermath
Bonnie Flores & her family
SMC/Foundation Fire Relief Drive
SMC Foundation President Lizzy Moore at the Fire Relief Drive with actress Nancy Greer
Bonnie Flores with her students
When fires raged through Los Angeles County in January 2025, Santa Monica College acted immediately to transform campus sites into hubs of supplies and support. The aid was urgently needed, as areas including Pacific Palisades and Altadena were devastated, affecting tens of thousands — including many SMC students, staff and faculty.
To help meet the vastness of the demand, SMC galvanized the broader community with a Fire Support Resource Drive, collecting food, clothing, hygiene products and baby supplies. The Santa Monica College Foundation set up a campus distribution center to share these vitally needed provisions to thousands of displaced people. No one was turned away or left empty-handed.
SMC has also raised more than $1.6 million in disaster relief funding — and counting. “People knew that we’re a safe place to contribute to and that we would get the money directly to people in need,” says Dr. Lizzy Moore, SMC Foundation president and dean of institutional advancement.
Rebuilding Lives
Dedicated to serving others, SMC Nursing Professor Bonnie Flores found it hard to accept help. But when the Malibu home she and her husband had owned for 23 years — where they raised their two now college-age daughters — burned to the ground, there was no choice. While her family and their dog escaped safely, virtually every possession had been reduced to ash. Bonnie had been able to grab important legal documents while evacuating, but everything from clothes to furniture to family portraits were all gone. She knows that insurance won’t cover all the losses, especially the irreplaceable items of sentimental value.
“All of the houses on our street, they’re all gone. It looks like someone dropped a bomb on the whole area,” says Bonnie, who also helps people as an intensive care nurse at Kaiser Permanente. But SMC was there for her — and not just as an employer. “The SMC Foundation gave us very generous support,” Bonnie says.
She and her husband are currently residing in Calabasas as they consider rebuilding. Fortunately, he is a contractor, which should help ease that process. “I grew up in Calabasas and have friends there,” Bonnie says. “Plus, it’s close to the building and safety office for my husband to get the needed permits.”
For now, though, Bonnie rises at 4:30 a.m. to drive to SMC so she can teach future nurses. Her return commute often takes up to 2.5 hours. She admits it’s been a particularly rough few years. As an ICU nurse during covid, she personally watched hundreds of people die from the virus. Then last August, her mother passed away. “So it’s like trauma upon trauma upon trauma,” she says. “It’s been hard.”
But Bonnie continues looking on the bright side. “I’m fortunate, because my family gives me a great support system,” she says. “We’re safe, so we’ll count our blessings.”
Empathy, Dignity and Grace
Organizations including Baby2Baby, Los Angeles Regional Food Bank and Westside Food Bank played vital roles in the relief effort. Meanwhile, World Central Kitchen joined with SMC to serve 14,563 nourishing hot meals to help sustain people through the crisis. SMC launched a Disaster Support Fund to provide temporary housing, school supplies, medical support and emergency aid to displaced students, faculty and staff.
In all, 3,825 volunteers joined with SMC in the cause, including some who came from as far away as Chicago and New York to lend a hand. Many of those serving had themselves been impacted by the wildfires. County residents of all ages came for help, Lizzy notes, from youth to those in their 90s. Many had lost their homes and had nowhere else to go.
“We had volunteers who had lost everything,” Lizzy says. Since it was hard to know which challenges each individual was facing, she adds that volunteer training and orientation sessions emphasized the importance of “serving up empathy, dignity and grace to everyone who came.”
Over two days alone, SMC collected 15,000 pounds of food for distribution at its Bundy Campus. And as firefighters from Oregon and Utah joined with their California counterparts to quell the destruction, SMC provided them with soap and towels.
“I’m really proud of this work,” Lizzy says. Ultimately, these efforts ensured that those who came to SMC during the county-wide tragedy would remember not just their loss but also kindness and resilience. During the unfolding emergency, SMC became a sanctuary to meet as many needs as possible — from the material to the emotional. Through empathy and action, SMC helped restore hope in a time of destruction and despair.
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SMC in Focus Volume XI, Issue 2
Mind Over Injury
Santa Monica College supports adults navigating acquired brain injury to pursue their personal and academic goals. Read Article
Power of Community
As wildfires ravaged Southern California, Santa Monica College emerged as a lifeline of compassion and action to serve those affected. Read Article
What We Can Do About Climate Chaos
We caught up with California climate scientist and SMC emeritus professor Bill Selby to drill down on what happened weather-wise in January, and to search for actionable takeaways around Earth Week. Read Article
Painter, Pianist, Troubadour
There’s nothing predictable about Amadour. The multidisciplinary artist who goes by a mononym and they/them pronouns flat-out refuses to be cubbyholed. Read Article
Bragging Rights
SMC Fashion students give used denim new life. PPI co-director named Senate District 24 Woman of the Year. Police Chief wins a statewide award. Read Article
Climate Change Agent
For Lisa Collins, climatizing the curriculum is mission-critical. This semester, she made a breakthrough with the rollout of Geology 9, “Climate Change.” Read Article