College of Business Administration

GROUP MEMBERS:

Patrik Tokarski
Kenny Doak
Yuri Ebata
Patricia Muckerheide
Marissa Narvaez
Ryan Mangahas
Mylin Mcalister
Samvel Saribekian
Josefine Bustos
Cecilia Prinz

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The wildfires that raged in San Diego County in October 2003, was one of the greatest natural disasters that the county has ever experienced. San Diego residents watched as the fires spread across the land and burnt everything in their way, while firefighters risked their lives to get the flames under control. San Diegans lost their homes, property and some, even their loved ones. Although donations were accepted from all over the country to help the fire victims get shelter and the most immediate care, the recovery from the devastation is still ongoing and desperately needed.

Ramona is a small community about thirty-five miles from downtown San Diego, where the Cedar fire destroyed 229 homes and caused at least $21 million in damages. In addition, 70% of those whose homes burned, were either uninsured or underinsured, and the owners had to rely heavily on help from volunteer organizations and government agencies. Currently, there are only a few organizations helping the Ramona residents repair their lives, homes and community in order to return to normalcy. When our group first talked to Kathy Leech, from the Ramona Disaster Outreach Response in January, she explained that people were living in rented mobile homes, struggling financially, and trying to get back on their feet. We decided, as a group, that we were going to help the people in Ramona in any way possible.

We first had an opportunity to work with Kathy Leech and meet the people affected by the fire at a picnic organized by the Ramona Disaster Outreach. Kathy informed us about her part in the organization, her background, how the fire had impacted the community, and how we could contribute to alleviate some of the problems. Our first task was to help the organization find out who exactly was in need of help and what kind of help they were looking for. There had been no such data previously recorded, so we needed to understand how many people required help before deciding what we should prioritize. In addition, the fire victims got a chance to get to know each other better, sign up for one-on-one interviews with Kathy to assess their needs, as well as receive pet food and other goods that had been donated to the community. At the picnic, we also had the opportunity to capture some of the burned areas and houses for our “Ramona Disaster Outreach” promotional video we were making, and we also interviewed homeowners regarding their current financial and emotional needs.

When following up with the interviews and assessment of the fire victims, we realized that we could best use our business skills to get funding for community, as well as get media attention for the “Forgotten Ramona Victims.” The first priority was to raise capital such as cash donations or gift certificates to buy tools and building material. To do this, we set out to work with a Fraternity on campus to give us more manpower. In addition, we created a donation letter describing the need for funds in Ramona that we sent to companies and individuals. The Outreach Response was also given a copy for use in future fundraising. However, we soon realized that people were more willing to donate if we personally delivered the donation letters, so we held several presentations for managers at businesses such as Lowe’s, IKEA, Home Depot and Wal-Mart. Following up with the managers, was another successful way to ensure that Kathy received the donations. Receipt, tax-forms for deductions and “thank you” notes were quickly mailed to those who donated.

Although we worked hard on donations, many declined referring to their previous donations for the San Diego Wildfires in other areas, or were financially unable to provide funds at this point. However, we did receive great donations from people such as Dr. Stephen L. Weber, president of SDSU, who gave a private donation of $250, and allowed us to interview him for our video. We are still receiving donations from various sources, and our total estimated donations so far are total $2,150.

Not only were we successful with our donation letter, but we also acquired a new business skill to help us raise larger funds for the community. Elizabeth Castillo, at the Natural History Museum in Balboa Park, had been helping the Ramona Outreach organization and took time from her busy schedule to come to SDSU and teach our group how to write successful grants. She gave us a presentation regarding who to send the grants to and how to make the financial data appealing to foundations and organizations. It needed to be clear what we were asking for and how the money would help the community to recover. We used this knowledge to create an effective grant letters that we are confident will benefit the Ramona community in the future.

To increase awareness about Ramona’s need for help after the fires, our group contacted a reporter, named Ruth Lepper, at the San Diego Union Tribune who had recently written about the Ramona fire victims. She was especially interested in our video and in, interviews with the fire victims. Ruth will be interviewing us and the Ramona Outreach group, in mid-May to write an article for the Tribune. Additionally, we sent our promotional video with an attached publicity letter to various local news stations such as, KUSI, channel 8, and 10 news. The Ramona Outreach Response found the video extremely helpful in their work for the community and was given a copy for further fundraising and promotional efforts.

This Social Change project relates to most of the ethical theories we have learned about this semester. For example, from both an ethical and economical utilitarian point of view, we have done the project because the ethical and economical benefits outweigh the costs. The costs have been our time and effort to raise funds and get media attention, while the benefits are that the Ramona fire victims are able to rebuild their community and become productive citizens. From a deontological point of view, our actions were right regardless of their good outcomes, because we all followed the principle of doing what is morally right by working with the community. In addition, “ethics of care” theory relates to the project because we were helping people we met in person, and established a relationship with Kathy that will continue even after the project is over. By raising funds, instead of material goods, we also gave the community a chance to maximize their capacity for free, informed personal choice, according to Libertarian principles. The community was able to choose how to get financial leverage from the money collected and decide how the money was best spent. We also believe that our project relates to the land ethic theory because we worked to preserve the beauty and stability of the Ramona Community. Finally, according to social contract theory, our group had a set of rules governing how we should treat each other and work together that we all accepted to work after, for our mutual benefit, on the condition that all group members would follow the same set of rules.

The “Ramona Disaster Outreach” project has been successful in many different ways, but perhaps the biggest success has been bringing hope to a community that was lacking funds and organization to recover from a devastating wildfire. The Ramona community has been extremely grateful for our efforts to help them, and each group member of our rather large group of ten, has enjoyed working on the project, meeting the people in the community and working with Kathy Leech for a great cause.