Empower

“[Working with the Volunteer Task Force] was the first educational experience that combined my personal life, my academic life, and the life of the community. … It was empowering for a sixth-grade student.”
— Cameron Ott

What has helped you to feel more hopeful about the future?

Signed by Steve Coburn, Fire Marshall and Assistant Fire Chief, this helmet is one of many given out to children by the Los Alamos Fire Department after Cerro Grande. LAHS Archives, 2000.0001. Los Alamos Historical Society.

Crises like the Cerro Grande Fire can affect children in different ways than adults. The community created programs to support them, and listened to what young people had to say. Youngsters across New Mexico donated money and toys—one student even gave his entire collection of Pokémon cards—and teens gave prom dresses. Los Alamos teens went to prom and graduation, determined to be the class of 2000 and not the class of the fire.

Mountain Elementary School was undamaged by the fire, but nearly one in five students had lost their homes in the fire. Their teachers worked with the Volunteer Task Force to make nature study a central part of schoolwork. Studying the forest’s regrowth gave children ways to help and to heal. Teens from across the region worked to rebuild trails in the Family YMCA’s Youth Conservation Corps. There are scientists and community leaders today who say these hours volunteering in the mountains set them on their paths in life.

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