Environment

Fund Delivers $10 Million To 2007 San Diego Wildfire Victims

By Ed Joyce / Reporter

Published April 26, 2011 at 1:28 PM PDT

This story was published more than 13 years ago.

A new report shows a San Diego organization invested more than $10 million to help victims of the 2007 wildfires in San Diego County.

The San Diego Regional Disaster Fund is a supporting organization of The San Diego Foundation, which released the report.

The money came from donations.

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The Disaster Fund partnered with more than 2,200 donors and more than 50 local nonprofit agencies over three years to assist in the 2007 wildfires recovery and rebuilding efforts throughout San Diego County.

Robyn Chatten is with the San Diego Foundation. She said the money helped more than 3,000 people.

"These are people that felt they needed some form of assistance to recover from the fire," said Chatten. "And sometimes that is all the way to the extent of needing to rebuild a new home, sometimes it's just a need to get psych-social support counseling or food or other immediate needs after the disaster."

Chatten said the $10 million was distributed through grants from 2007 to 2010.

She said the money helped recovery and rebuilding efforts for more than 2,000 families. It also provided scholarships to more than 100 students whose educational plans were derailed by the fires.

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Chatten said the fund also was used for environmental restoration.

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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