LOS ANGELES — “It was terrible,” Allisson Campos said as she watched footage of the Eaton Fire she recorded on her phone.
She could be heard speaking with her father as they packed to evacuate, the flames on the hill but moving closer. Soon after, everything they left behind would be gone.
In the months that followed, the high school junior described herself as “checked out,” keeping her trauma to herself.
“I’m very much a person who likes to keep their emotions inside,” she explained. “Everybody would talk about, like, how everything was going on, everything was burning, and I kept it secret that my home burned down.”
What You Need To Know
Stars is a nonprofit organization that provides college prep, mentoring and educational programs to youth in the Pasadena area
Following the Eaton Fire, they launched disaster relief efforts, including establishing drop-in centers and mental health services as well as working with teens who lost their homes
This summer, the U.S.-Japan Council collaborated with the Dodgers to sponsor The Kibou for LA Initiative. Stars could bring 10 students to the Tohoku region of Japan to learn how the community has been recovering after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011
Students said the trip gave them hope and strengthened their resolve to help rebuild Altadena
Discussing her experience made her feel vulnerable until she started talking with Stars, a Pasadena-based nonprofit that provides educational and mentorship programs.
Executive director Matumaini Taylor said that following the fire, the organization sprang into action to meet immediate needs, setting up drop-in centers and mental health services, but what was missing, she thought, was a place for teens.
“Adults have lots of touchpoint places. They’re talking about insurance together, how they’re going to rebuild together,” Taylor said. “But for youth, it’s like, where do they come to have a place to feel vulnerable and a place to process what has happened and process what could be?”
This summer, that work took them across the world.
The U.S.-Japan Council collaborated with the Dodgers to sponsor a leadership program called The Kibou for LA Initiative — kibou, meaning hope.
Ten students impacted by the Eaton Fire, including Allisson traveled to the Tohoku region of Japan to learn how the community has been recovering after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011.
Senior Owen Porter-Self was born and raised in Altadena and lost the only home he’d ever known.
Following the trip, he helped produce a short documentary about the experience that was recently screened at a Stars fundraising event.
Arriving in Japan, Porter-Self said he felt immediately seen and heard.
“Since the fires really it had felt very isolating,” he admitted. “And then suddenly there was this group of people who kind of understood where we were all coming from.”
(Photo courtesy of Stars)
The trip not only gave Porter-Self hope but strengthened his resolve to help restore his own community.
“I think all of us students just want to make sure that we all have a say in what happens with the rebuilding process,” Porter-Self said. “To make sure that the people that have been in Altadena for a long time have a say in moving forward and rebuilding and that doesn’t get taken out of our hands.”
“These kids, they’re ready to sit on collaborative councils, they’re ready to talk to electees,” Taylor said. “They’re going to inherit whatever we rebuild. And we’re excited about that.”
And for what comes next. In a few weeks, Stars will bring a cohort of students to New Orleans to examine how the city has recovered since Hurricane Katrina 20 years ago.
Aloni Ford is a member of Stars’ executive advisory committee and helped the students produce the documentary.
An Altadena native, she still considers the city her home and wanted to make sure the students whose lives were so disrupted had opportunities to find strength and comfort. She believes the Japan trip, which was completely free for the student participants, provided that.
“Trauma is a real thing, and this was a very traumatic experience,” she stressed. “I think it was beautiful to go to Japan for a week and to rest your mind or see something different and speak with people that have been through some of the same trauma that you have been through.”
Allisson, who will travel with the group to New Orleans, said the Japan trip was life-changing and definitely filled her with the hope the name of the program promises.
“They went through a tsunami and they have improved, they’ve grown,” she said. “That means we can also improve and grow. We can also move forward.”
AloJapan.com