From the outside, the Alma Fuerte school stood miraculously unharmed by the Eaton Fires that devastated the Pasadena landscape in January 2025.
Adriani Leon, Alma Fuerte’s Community School’s Director recently shared her story with Hummingly:
“When the fires happened, we were looking at the maps.” “We [the school] just seemed to be in this little pocket that was protected.”
But Adriani and the Alma Fuerte team understood this would not be the case for the school’s community. Nearly 60 families and staff from the Alma Fuerte community lost their homes in the Eaton Fires.
“Our team was immediately all hands-on deck.”
After COVID, the team understood the importance of maintaining connection. The Alma Fuerte team immediately united to pick up the phone – reaching out to families and staff, and providing surveys to get a better idea of needs. Teachers took on donations, the community rallied together to deliver supplies, and they built a safe space for students and families to share and connect.
The supplies, food, and support were “overwhelming”. The team helped to guide families through the shock and exhaustion. Together they navigated the unknown of losing so much, and for those who lost everything, figuring out where to start, and within days, the school was offering field trips and activities. This gave students a sense of normalcy and an opportunity to be with their friends, and parents the space to grieve.
“These scenes were just not great for students to be in, and parents no longer had the privacy to even cry.”
The educators returned to classes and routines, while always holding the space for those that needed it. Never knowing which day someone would need to share, or ask for help. The school became a central counselor, a donation center, and a welcomed distraction.
“It was a lot, but everybody just stepped up and supported and held each other up – and it was great.”
But as the months went on, the “heroic phase” passed by, and to some degree, so did the sense of connection. Loss and guilt had different meaning, many were still searching for homes, and the recovery of individuals and community was only just beginning.
“You’re overwhelmed by support, but then a few months trickle by and everybody really feels it emotionally. It’s sort of like a vacuum, where everything just hits you.”
The beginning of the school year brought new sensitivities to the Alma Fuerte community. The team had been carrying so much for so long and at this stage, Adriani shares that the team felt disjointed.
“We’re working on all these things on an island. We are a team, and that little message just got lost somewhere in the shuffle over the summer.”
While the team readily participated in activities that focused on supporting their students, it’s not always in the nature of our educators to ‘fill their cup’ first.
With support from Good360, Hummingly ran a Sustaining the Supporters workshop for the Alma Fuerte educators early in the school year to offer tools to help them keep showing up, and carrying the heavy weight that they do.
“Hummingly's training came at such an important time for our staff. People really got to say what’s on their heart and be completely vulnerable.”
Adriani admits that, going into the session, she thought she may feel some of the staff ‘itching in their seats’. But it was quite the opposite; “I could tell that they were fully engaged.”
She says that the sense of tension when people want to leave a situation, just wasn’t there. The Doing Well cards broke down peoples’ apprehensions around expressing their different perspectives and experiences of the fires and early recovery.
Adriani highlighted the physical reminder that the cards offered to the team, and the emotionally accessible tools and approach delivered by Hummingly. In particular, Jolie’s acknowledgement for the enormity of daily challenges for the Alma Fuerte community, and importance of the ‘simple’ task of doing something for yourself. She also noted the sense that participants were open to hearing from someone with lived experience, and may have felt that, “Jolie went through some of these things too. She’s lived it, I can trust her.”
Adriani closed the discussion by recognizing the incredible strength of the Alma Fuerte team and Executive Leadership. While many are new in their careers, they have faced more challenges than most ever will. Adriani plans to continue the conversations within the team and build on the momentum from the Hummingly session now that the team has tools and strategies they can put into play.
“It has really left a big impact on our team.”
