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Two years ago, Carl Walton joined the Pasadena Run Club for a sense of community, but he ended up getting so much more after the deadly Eaton Fire destroyed his home in Altadena, California, earlier this year.
“It literally burned up, right in front of me,” Walton, an Uber driver and massage therapist, recalled.
Walton lost everything — as did about a dozen members of the run club who also lost their homes in the blaze. The club responded with temporary shelter, food and clothes. They organized fundraisers and became a changed group in a changed city.
“They’ve been here the whole time, helping me the whole time, just on all levels,” Walton told CBS News.
Ronnie Ferraz co-founded the run club four years ago.
“Every day, we would learn that there was somebody new affected by the fire,” Ferraz said. “Do they have food? Do they have clothes? Like, what do they need?”
Now, the run club is no longer just about the running.
“It’s much more of a community than anything else,” Ferraz told CBS News.
Altadena is slowly recovering. The wildfires destroyed two-thirds of the town’s structures. Eight months later, 97% of those lots have been cleared, according to the Altadena Town Council.
Victoria Knapp, chair of the Altadena Town Council, said neighbors helping neighbors is “critically important” to the community’s recovery.
“The help can come in any package, great or small, and it can help the people that need it most,” Knapp told CBS News.
Walton is still recovering, too. He’s staying with relatives, trying to save money to live on his own again. But some nights, he sleeps in his car.
The Pasadena Run Club is his relief from all that.
“By running, I’m kind of putting everything to the side for a minute, and the hope comes from the people, the people around me that’s helped,” Walton said.
