Buddy System Helps Victims of Laguna Beach Firestorm : Assistance: Volunteers organized by PTA leaders in the Laguna Beach Unified School District have adopted about 100 students and their families and are helping them get their lives back in order.

PTA president Barbara Norton always knew she had a lot of buddies at the close-knit Top of the World Elementary School.

But the loyalty of her school friends became overwhelmingly clear after Norton’s home on Caribbean Way was destroyed more than two weeks ago in a firestorm.

Since the Oct. 27 fire ravaged parts of the city, PTA leaders throughout the Laguna Beach Unified School District have set up a buddy system to help about 100 schoolchildren and their families, all of whom have lost their homes. About six school employees who lost their homes are also receiving help.

“We just wanted a way of setting up a buffer for these families,” said Angela Irish, president of the districtwide PTA Council. “We wanted them to have a buddy, or sponsor family that would basically take off some of their load.”

As Norton and other survivor families have discovered, their buddies are ready to help in whatever way they can.

Norton called on her friends for help Wednesday, when storm clouds gathered, and residents of her charred, slide-prone Mystic Hills neighborhood needed assistance filling sandbags.

Within half an hour of Norton’s call for help, about 10 parents from Top of the World and players from the Laguna Beach High School football team were on the street, sandbags in hand.

“The buddies got the sandbags,” Norton said. “The buddy system took care of my children while I was busy trying to find engineers to tell us where to place the sandbags.”

She said the quick response illustrates what she called the “family atmosphere” that has always been a part of the school and the community. “People truly care about each other here.”

In this close community that’s grown up around concern for children in the city’s four schools, most of the buddies have known their adoptive families for years. Others are meeting for the first time, forging new friendships out of the disaster.

The buddy families recognize that the people they help will have vastly different needs. Some may want little help or no help at all, or just a little privacy. Almost all are more comfortable helping others, rather than accepting help for themselves.

“We’re all in this together,” said Chris Loidolt, PTA president at Laguna Beach High School. “We’re all going to move forward together, maybe at a different pace. Whatever they’re ready to receive, we’re ready to give.”

A PTA member at Thurston Middle School who’s known her adoptive family for years, Diane Lichterman said she’s mostly been called upon to be a “sounding board.”

“So many families who had been well established are now starting over,” Lichterman said. “Just figuring out what they need is overwhelming. Every once in a while it gets to be too much. My job mostly has been to be a good listener and a good friend.”

Small gestures carry great meaning.

A pet goldfish lost in the fire meant a lot to the youngest child of the family that Thurston Middle School PTA member Shari Yamamoto was helping. She didn’t know the family well, but she felt that a new pet would comfort the youngster.

“We had such fun presenting her with this goldfish,” Yamamoto said. “People who are giving are probably getting more benefits.”

Her PTA group has developed a long list of other potential ways to help people burned out by the fire, among them: moving and unpacking their belongings; screening and returning their calls; writing thank-you notes for them; arranging play time for children; taking children to the park, a movie or out for a hamburger; having a household or small appliance shower; baby-sitting or pet-sitting.

The PTAs also have created lists of volunteers and services they can offer.

“Tons of people signed up for baby-sitting and running errands,” said Mary Hill, a Thurston PTA member. “It’s just been so great the way people have come forward and offered their services. . . .”

Survivor families are being asked to draw up “wish lists” of things they need. New clothes and small appliances often top the lists.

Wish list items have been sought in recent days among the stacks of donated goods at the Laguna Beach Presbyterian Church by Top of the World PTA members Cheri David, Stephanie Mister and Susan Sandys.

“I’m looking for candlesticks and I’m looking for wine glasses,” Sandys said on a recent “shopping” trip to the Presbyterian church. “I’m looking for salad bowls and wooden spoons.”

While there wasn’t a wooden spoon to be found, Sandys soon spotted a green, glass salad bowl, some bed sheets and a new indoor electric grill that could prove handy for the family of four she is helping.

“We all realize this could have been any of us, we could have all been seeking assistance,” Sandys said. “We’re just all pulling together to heal what’s been damaged.”

PTA leaders say the buddy families will be around as long as they are needed.

“All these buddy families know it’s a long-term deal,” PTA Council President Irish said. “This is not a week’s worth of time and effort. This is for the long haul to help these families get back in the groove.”