Emergency RV, Part III

photo credit: Carin Dorghalli

Read Part I and Part II of Woody Faircloth Interview.

 Woody Faircloth Interview Part III

Laurel Hunter: An event of this magnitude had to be difficult to comprehend for someone your daughter’s age. What has been her response to all of this?

Woody Faircloth: When the Camp Fire happened and started all of this – when I had that first eureka moment about getting an RV, I showed her a picture of one. I asked her what she thought about getting one, driving it to California, and giving it to a family whose house burned down so they could have a home for Thanksgiving. She had no front teeth at the time and she just smiled at me and said, “Dad, God and Santa Claus are going to be so proud of us!”

LH: That conjures up a beautiful image. I mean, isn’t this what the holidays are supposed to be about?

WF: That was a big part of our motivation, to provide a family a place to call home for Thanksgiving. When we were pulling into Chico, we were both almost giddy with excitement. Like, yay, we made it! I mean, it was a three-day trip.

LH: Right.

WF: It was just the two of us and it was a great adventure. And we were going to do this thing and then, you know, we were going to go home and go back to school and go back to work. And when we were pulling into town, you could see where the fire had burned all the way down to the fields right outside of Chico and I asked her, “So, what do you think, Luna?” And she said, “I think everybody whose house burned down deserves a free house, free food and free pets!” It was pure excitement. But as we begin to maneuver the landscape, you know, it was just – just shock. She just kept saying things like Oh, no! Oh, Dad, look at that! Like, oh, my goodness.

LH: It was upsetting for her?

WF: What we saw was shocking to both of us. We pulled into the parking lot of Target in Chico. There were big military spotlights shining into the parking lot and there were porta-potties set up and armed security guards in tactical gear patrolling the property. I asked a well-armed man in fatigues if he was with the police or what and he said he was from Texas – and had been hired as a private security guard and was there to guard the Super Target. And I’m like, guard it from what?

LH: That must have been a bit confusing for her.

WF: It was surreal for sure. We went into the store to get some basic stuff that we needed, and it looked like the place had been ransacked, like you’d expect to see it midnight on Christmas eve. The cashier checking us out asked what we were up to, because I guess we didn’t fit the profile, you know – just fled from your house with nothing but the clothes on your back. I told her that we had just drove out from Denver – that we had this RV that we were going to give someone. And she just burst into tears. She had lost her home and was living in her car – and she just started pointing at people, person after person, in the store who had lost their home. It was heartbreaking.

After that, we went to have lunch at a restaurant nearby and our waitress had lost her home and at least four of the other waitresses had lost their homes too. I mean, I was just like, wow. There is some real suffering here. This is so real. You know, people are really hurting here. Lots of people.

I went into the bathroom and there was a guy who was crying. He looked like such a nice guy – someone I’d hang out with, so I asked him – “Hey man, you OK?” He wasn’t. His two twin girls were at the table waiting for him to come out, and he was trying to figure out how to tell them that he couldn’t find their mother and she might be gone. They were out of money and he didn’t know what they were going to do. I told him we had RVs and to give me his phone number but of course his phone was lost in the fire along with his home and cars. I bought his dinner for him and gave him a hug but I have no idea what happened to that guy, but I was just blown away by the fact that it wasn’t like a couple of people – it was full on trauma everywhere we looked.

LH: How does such a young person process the reality of something like this?

WF: Kids are quite resilient in most situations but she asked me on the way home if a fire like that would ever happen in Denver, and so I’d try to reassure her by talking about the geography there and some of the things that caused the fire.

LH: Right.

WF: But all the while, when I’d call someone to tell them we had an RV for them, you know, I’d just break down in tears and she’d just punch me on the shoulder and say, “Come on, Dad, pull it together. Try to act normal.” The sweetest thing.

LH: She sounds wonderful.

WF: Heart of an angel.

LH: Well, in that same vein, what’s it been like for you to have your young daughter as your partner in this?

WF: Part of me is convinced that the spirit of my grandmother lives inside her. She’s an old soul and has always inspired me to get up every day and try to do something positive. It’s been an amazing time for the two of us together and she definitely keeps me laughing.

Like the time on our drive to California with a reporter and Camera crew that we met at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in that first RV. The reporter asked, so, Luna, what’s it like traveling with your dad? Are you guys having, a great adventure? And her answer was “Well, he’s been texting on his phone the whole way!”

LH: Thanks, Luna!

WF: It was funny, but also a good cue for me to stop texting while I was driving. I learned my lesson right then and there! I will say as exciting as these trips are, they are also grueling at times, and we’ve made quite a few of them. So, I always ask her on the way home, “Would you ever want to do that again?” And she’s always like, “Let’s do it, Dad!”

We were recently delivering a couple of RVs to some firefighters who lost their homes in Northern California and Oregon border area. I was showing them around and handing over the keys and there was media there. I was talking to them and I looked over at Luna playing with a police canine. They were playing tug-of-war with this rope and the handler had given her one of his Challenge Coins, which is, you know, a real big honor. I was totally a third wheel. She’s really just her own person in all of this. It’s not like traveling around with a little kid. It’s like traveling around with this old soul who’s as much, if not more, a part of it than her dad.

LH: Her life has such purpose.

WF: Yes. Since we purchased our first RV, people really began to advocate for what we were doing, and more and more RVs have been showing up. Volunteers stepped up and donated RV’s and offered to help with funding, towing and logistics work. It was just a miracle how it all came together. We were delivering almost one a day for a couple of weeks there early on, matching them with survivors and we were getting better and better at vetting them – making sure we were dealing with legitimate people. We just became connected with the community and now we have this platform – this purpose – God showing us the way. It’s been such a blessing to do this with her.

(To be continued)

To learn more about Emergency RV, please click here

This multi-part series is authored by Laurel Hunter, a freelance creative writer with over 20 years of experience covering a broad range of topics. She and her family are 2018 Camp Fire survivors who have since relocated to the Pacific Northwest Olympic Peninsula.