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December 20, 2007 -- Adidas Donates Thousands of Brand New Clothing Items to Assist
Clothing earmarked for victims of the Southern California Wildfires
The painful effects of the fires in San Bernardino County remained well after the flames were finally extinguished in October 2007. The Slide and Grass Valley fires, near Lake Arrowhead, had destroyed 314 homes and over 14,000 acres of land (roughly 20 square miles). The estimated cost of the damage was well over $100 million for that county alone.
"I know people who lost everything," said retired pastor Albert Vaters. Vaters and his wife, Anita, are partners with Assist International. The Vaters have donated carpet to Assist, which was sent to Eastern European Bible College. They have donated chairs, which Assist sent to Romania. Last month, when Assist International received dozens of large boxes of brand new Adidas product, Executive Director Tim Reynolds thought it was time to give back to the Vaters and the Lake Arrowhead community.
"I called Albert and asked if he wanted some brand new clothing from Adidas," stated Tim. "He said there were a thousand places he could send them."
With that, the Assist International company van was loaded with bags of brand new sports style clothing, shoes, jackets and sandals. Warehouse manager Martin Barajas and his 12 year-old daughter had a dramatic, six hour adventure through fog, sleet and snow to deliver the goods. Martin is a native of Mexico and had never seen snow before, let alone drive in blizzard conditions on curvy and steep mountain roads.
"Before we left I asked Tim if I should carry chains," Martin said. "He said 'Oh no, you will be fine.' We were sliding all over the place."
With white knuckles and praying through gritted teeth, Martin and his daughter were finally able to breathe sighs of relief as they pulled into the Century 21 office in Lake Arrowhead. The Vaters and other local volunteers helped unload the bags of Adidas clothing to get ready for distribution. Pastor Vaters decided he wanted the clothing to be donated to victims of the fires in the communities that were hit the hardest. The clothing was sized, matched, tagged and distributed to families who lost everything in the fires.
On the return trip home, Martin and his daughter decided to take Highway 210 to the Grapevine instead of going home over the snowy mountain pass, a detour of over three hours.
"On the bright side of things, I got to throw my first snow ball," laughed Martin. "Hopefully I can convince Tim that we need chains in the van from now on."
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Did You Know? 97% of all resources donated to Assist International in the past ten years go directly to programs in the field.
