Arts and crafts help Black Forest fire victims
Black Forest fire victims are still trying to recover from a wildfire that devastated the area four months ago.
The fire burned more than 14,000 acres.
Burnt trees still litter the area, reminding fire victims what they lost, but they are trying to move on by getting their minds off the situation and turning to arts and crafts.
The Black Forest Arts and Craft Guild hostedits 49th Fall Show and Sale.
People bought homemade picture frames, Christmas decorations and other crafts, but something was missing: Donna Johnson’s jewelry.
“I use to have hundreds of pieces of jewelry,” Johnson said.
The jeweler lost her home, her crafts and almost everything to the fire.
But she is using her craft to get her life back to normal.
“Right now, I’m busy building up, making more jewelry and trying to get my website up again,” Johnson said.
She said making jewelry is soothing to her and it gets her mind off what she lost.
12 people who worked the event lost their home to the wildfires, including Wayne Strong.
“It’s the first one in 20 years, I don’t have anything ,” Strong said.
He lost his woodshop to the fire.
Strong is living in a rental home and is working with his insurance company to get his life back to normal.
Even though he lost a lot, it’s not keeping him from contributing to the show.
“I’m just helping out to make it work for everyone else,” Strong said.
Johnson shares Strong’s optimism.
“We can’t get it back, we can’t change it, crying isn’t going to help and it won’t get it back. We have to move forward and rebuild our new lives,” Johnson said.
