Indian Valley residents vet GoFundMe campaigns — not all legitimate — here’s where to go
The number of GoFundMe campaigns for those displaced with houses leveled by the Dixie Fire is staggering. It is almost hard to keep track of it all. The pages are being shared across social media.
But some of the GoFundMe campaigns turned out not to be Indian Valley based residents at all. In fact, no one knew who they were.
That’s why Tyler Pew, Miriam Marquez, Susan Web, Sierra Institute and others are stepping in to help vet campaigns and to get them gathered in a handful of places online rather than here and there in the hopes that more campaigns are seen and people can use their networks online to give wide exposure to various needs.
People outside the region with ties to people in the region want to help. Strangers online want to help. This gives everyone a secure way of doing things.
Sierra Institute’s Moorea Stout came up with a way to take donations without having to pay out the fees of a GoFundMe campaign. They are welcoming survivors of the Dixie Fire to set up on their site. Here’s the Sierra Institute’s link https://sierrainstitute.us/indian-valley-strong/
On Facebook there’s a Dixie Survivor Relief page run by Marquez from Quincy, which is becoming a good place to gather for information related to campaigns.
Then there is the Dixie Relief Campaign www.dixiefirerelief.org which is gathering campaigns on one website with information on individual campaigns and an area to request assistance as well. These include funding campaigns for Indian Valley Fire Department, which has suffered its own losses in the fire station, resources, and morale.