Dear Community, 

MCCF’s mission is to support  children having healthy childhoods. The three factors that influence this are a loving family,  a caring community and a healthy environment. 2020 is a tipping point for all three here on the coast. 

In many ways, everything we have done over the past 28 years as a volunteer organization to build a safety net for children has been a dress rehearsal for the challenges we face now. Realizing that any disaster planning was going to be complicated by the terrifying trifecta of the pandemic, seasonal wildfire sand the flu season,  we rolled up our sleeves, put on our masks and went to work. To date, thanks to you, our all volunteer organization has distributed over $400,000 in aid to our community.

Responding to an ever-changing scenario in this challenging age of COVID, we had to figure out how to safely get help to our coastal communities.  Since March, we have been distributing COVID masks, hygiene items, supplies and solutions to our partners and families up and down the coast, from Westport to Gualala, to help everyone in case of other unforeseen disasters and to ease the pandemic impacts.

We continue to co-fund the  Fort Bragg Food Bank Kid Box Project, available to all coast kids weekly. Harvest Markets is partnering with us to get pallets of diapers delivered to the Food Bank. Then, they  brought us to tears by making a substantial donation to help us pay this essential bill.

MCCF is making sure funds reach hardworking families in distress who have been left out of other kinds of assistance: the people feeding you, a mom with cancer, a child who needs surgery at UCSF.  And because accurate and up to date information about health and community resources is as important as money, we share everything on our web page in English and Spanish. We have a caring network of Latino neighbors distributing masks and critical information, we are there for our littles and our elders.

Thanks to our local Motel Six, we have opened a Free Thrift Store under the leadership of our resource coordinator, Heather Baird. Our MCCF volunteers are safely serving coastal children as well as wildfire refugees from inland. All donations to the Free Thrift Store are from community members (caring kids as well as concerned grownups) who have been cleaning out their  toy shelves and closets to help us.

In response to our County being part of the largest fire in California’s history, we are building air purifiers to protect coastal children with asthma and pre-existing conditions from toxic smoke.

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We’ve created this effective EPA solution by using box fans, HEPA furnace filters and bungee cords so our healthcare partners can distribute them free to patients. For just $50 you can help us keep a room smoke free and prevent expensive visits to our small hospital’s overworked emergency room. 

Even after the fires die down,  wood smoke from local heat sources, mold and allergens often plague kids living in imperfect housing which results in a very high incidence of pediatric asthma here on the coast.  MCCF air purifiers can make an important difference in  protecting children’s fragile immune systems and developing lungs.This simple solution can protect them from a lifetime of health damage.

With colder winter weather fast approaching and the cost of heat skyrocketing, once again our sleeping bags are essential.Please help us to provide children with air purifiers, sleeping bags and a goodnight’s sleep.

More than ever our kids are counting on you. Please share www.mccf.info with your neighbors, donate today and stay safe!

Gratefully, on behalf of our board, volunteers and coast communities,

Annie Liner, Heather Baird, Margaret Fox, Omie Behrns, Sasha Graham, Sherrie Spires & Zida Borcich