Community Raising Funds for Car Fire Victim

By CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA | Reporter

The Palisadian community has been contributing to a GoFundMe account aimed at raising money for Ruthann Shanley, 69, whose car burst into flames in the parking lot of the Palisades Recreation Center on Friday, June 8.

Shanley, an umpire and lifetime baseball coach from Santa Monica named after Babe Ruth, isn’t quite sure what caused the inferno, but remembers running over a bag of leaves just moments before somebody yelled that her car was on fire.

By the time fire officials from Los Angeles Fire Department Station 69 reached the car, the flames had spread throughout the cabin, leaving nothing but ashes in its path.

“I handled it really well at the time but the stress caught up with me,” Shanley said in an interview with the Palisadian-Post. “I’m 69 and I’m like, ‘How could this happen?’”

In hopes of getting her a new car, a GoFundMe account aims to raise up to $15,000 for Shanley. As the Post went to print, the account has so far raised $440 in 14 days.

Shanley is impressed and thankful at the willingness to help displayed by the community.

“I have never been treated that nicely in Santa Monica,” she said.

Erich Haas, the Palisades Recreation Center director, is responsible for creating the GoFundMe page. He wrote that he was “inspired to do this for Ruthann, in part by a young girl who was selling lemonade at the park entrance when this occurred on Friday.

“This young girl stepped up and gave all the money she just earned for the day to Ruthann (whom she did not know) to try and help,” he wrote.

Sofia Mahl, the young girl who was selling lemonade at the park to raise money for charities, saw the entire event unfold before her.

“It was traumatizing but Sofia was composed enough to say, ‘Hey Mom, let’s give her the money instead’ when she saw the woman’s wallet burnt to a crisp after firefighters retrieved it from the car,” said Sofia’s mother, LaReine Chabut.

Shanley said she refused the money at first, but saw how determined young Sofia was to help her and accepted her kind gesture.

The fundraiser for Shanley can be found at gofundme.com/pali-youth-sports-offical-car-fire.