Three Palisadians Host Fundraising Event, Commemorative Art Exhibit

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

At the end of 2024, lifelong Palisadian Kristen Goldberg was at the airport with her family, waiting to go on vacation, when she posed the question: “What objects are super dear to you, and what would you take if our house was about to burn down?”

Goldberg, who lost her Alphabet Streets home in the Palisades fire less than two weeks later, described asking that question as “the eeriest thing of all time.”

“For me, it was my stuffed animal, Mr. Bunny, and we’re just talking about it,” Goldberg said. “Then, we lost our home, and it was just so eerie.”

At the time, the question came from a project Goldberg was embarking on to get back into painting, centered on a series of meaningful objects to people—starting with her friend, Liz Madden, who had just moved into a new apartment and requested a piece from Goldberg. Madden suggested Goldberg call the series “Objects of Affection.”

The project took on a new meaning after the fire, shifting into a fundraising event that took place on June 1 to support Together Palisades, put on by Goldberg, Madden and Josie Washburn—a trio of friends who originally met while attending St. Matthew’s Parish School.

Washburn, who was living in the Palisades at the time of the fire, and Madden, who grew up in the community but had moved out of it, did not lose their family homes, but described the collective experience of “so many people we love and grew up with.”

“It was just such a devastating event,” Madden said, “and we were also just gobsmacked.”

So at the end of January, when the idea of Objects of Affection resurfaced, Goldberg wanted to make it into a fire fundraiser.

“This is the time to do it,” Goldberg recalled thinking. “I feel like it wasn’t meant to happen at the end of [last] year, because it was meant to happen post fires.”

Put on to give Palisadians a chance to “reconnect, share stories, and celebrate the history and heart” of the community, Objects of Affection was centered on a group exhibit, “honoring the objects of affections we lost to the fire.” Prior to the event, they had an open call for the exhibit, inviting community members to submit their own pieces.

“That’s how the art prompt came to be, which is what we built the event around, allowing folks to create pieces of art around objects they lost in the fires,” Goldberg said, “so they can transform their grief into something new and beautiful.”

Goldberg contributed a painting of Mr. Bunny. Other items that were on display included part of an iron frame that was salvaged from an Alphabet Streets home, “If It Breaks It’s Okay” by Hannah Sharpe, and “Resilience in Clay” by potter Mara Greenwald.

“[Mara] had, literally the night before the fires, put two pots in her kiln, and then their house burned down,” Goldberg said. “The only thing that remained was the kiln, and these pots were totally untouched. Those were a huge part of the art show.”

Goldberg explained that they allowed people to expand beyond the prompt itself.

“It didn’t just need to be fire victims that were creating art,” she described. “We allowed the art to be about your love for the Palisades in general.”

The event also featured brands and businesses with ties to the community, including Pali Wine Co. and Sunset Smash.

“It was so special to have local brands there that we all know and love,” Goldberg said.

Over $6,000 from ticket and merchandise sales at the event—which had about 70 attendees—went to support Together Palisades, which is a “community-led effort focused on rebuilding” things like small businesses, parks, gathering spaces and more.

Washburn, who said she has a “massive family” with parents who “know everyone” and siblings who are “friends with everyone,” had heard about Together Palisades and the work the organization was doing after the fire.

“They put incredible thought into where the money was going and how it would be best utilized,” Washburn said. “If we were going to collect money, we wanted to know that it was going somewhere legitimate and it was going to be used for what we wanted it to be used for.”

Washburn described feeling “really aligned” with the work Together Palisades is doing and that asking people to donate there “made sense for us.”

Overall, all three organizers expressed how well the event went, in terms of fundraising and bringing the community together.

“It was so incredibly special to see so many parts of our community coming together, like worlds colliding,” Goldberg described. “It was a really special day.”

Washburn said they were able to bring people that “we personally hadn’t seen in now decades that were lifelong Palisadians too, and they, in turn, got to see other people that they hadn’t seen in forever.”

“It was beautiful, all of these Palisadians connecting, and our shared love of the community—that brings us together so much, even if we hadn’t seen each other in so long, we still have that to talk about,” Washburn continued.

She described two men who were in the same grade at St. Matthew’s that she thinks “haven’t seen each other since graduation day of eighth grade.”

“I look over and they’re in the most beautiful embrace,” Washburn said. “I truly was tearing up. They were so genuinely happy to see each other and have a reason to connect after all these years.”

Madden said that people from “all walks of life” showed up to the event, including from AYSO, people they grew up with and went to school with, and parents’ friends: “Everyone really came together.”

When it comes to events in the future, the trio was unsure if there would be another Objects of Affection or event of this caliber, but they expressed interest in creating “communal gathering spaces for us to come together that are intentional.” Together Palisades also has ideas for events in the works for the future.

“It’s so important to keep having things like this and finding times to connect together,” Goldberg said. “We all live in LA—we’re in Santa Monica and Brentwood—and it has been weird to see life just going on as normal and there’s literal devastation a mile and a half away that doesn’t feel like it’s being talked about that much anymore. It is just so important to us to be like, ‘Hey, this did happen, we do all still need support … we all need to be there for each other still.’”

Crayon Collection Unveils ‘Banners of Hope’ Project Across Pacific Palisades and Brentwood

By LILY TINOCO | Assistant Editor 

Waves of color and messages of hope now line the streets of Pacific Palisades and Brentwood, as local nonprofit Crayon Collection unveiled the Banners of Hope project—a community-driven effort.

Banners of Hope for Pacific Palisades invited area schools impacted by the January fire to create art that would be on display on light poles across the community. Students at each participating school worked to create one unique artwork—representative of their school—and chose three words to describe the future of the Palisades.

To celebrate the launch, Crayon Collection hosted a community event on Tuesday, June 3, with families, local educators and civic leaders. The event featured a live performance of “Hope” by Palisadian musician Joe Sumner, “honoring the strength and spirit of those impacted,” according to Crayon Collection.

“I feel like when I drive through the Palisades right now, it’s really not our community,” Crayon Collection Founder Sheila Morovati explained to the Palisadian-Post. “When I come through and I [see] ads for debris removal, or remediation or lawyers … It’s just not about our community and the people. There’s this togetherness that we wanted to bring about through these images that the kids are providing us within each school.”

Morovati hoped the artwork would provide a sense of community, joy and hope to those who have been affected and are navigating great loss.

“To be honest, it feels like it’s going to do a lot because as we drive through and see the rubble and all the depressing sights, just seeing what these kids have produced already has been so uplifting,” Morovati said.

Of the artwork that Morovati previewed ahead of the unveiling, she said three words stood out most: Love, Faith and Rebuild.

Now on display throughout Brentwood and the Palisades since the start of June, light pole banners feature the student-created artwork.

Participating schools include Palisades Charter Elementary, Marquez Charter Elementary, Methodist Preschool of Pacific Palisades, Kehillat Israel Early Childhood Center, Seven Arrows Elementary, Calvary Christian, Corpus Christi School, Village School and St. Matthew’s Parish School.

“The Banners of Hope project serves as a powerful reminder that hope and creativity can flourish even in the most challenging times,” Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said in a statement.

The banners will be up through the end of August. As a conclusion, Crayon Collection is also planning on replenishing every school’s art supply closet in August, in honor of #NationalCrayonCollectionMonth, “ensuring that students are equipped for the new school year.”

Crayon Collection was founded by Morovati, a resident of the Palisades, in 2010, with a mission to collect little-used or new crayons and donate them to children in need all over the country.

“Morovati’s daughter was a year-and-a-half old and a finicky eater when the two would dine at California Pizza Kitchen and be given a pack of crayons prior to their meal,” according to a 2014 Post article. “At such a young age, her daughter would scribble a bit and be done. Morovati noticed the staff would throw away the nearly new crayons along with the napkins and straw wrappers left on the table at the end of the meal.”

Over time, Morovati continuously noticed this trend in kid-friendly dining establishments. This led her to start collecting the discarded crayons off of tables. In September 2010, she expanded her efforts and became the founder of Crayon Collection.

Now, Crayon Collection serves 30,000 low-income youth annually and provides equal access to art education in vulnerable communities where art has been defunded. The organization has saved over 22 million crayons to date and has partnered with different institutions to offer art education to vulnerable schools.

Crayon Collection is currently accepting donations to support ongoing arts programming and community recovery efforts. For more information or to get involved, visit crayoncollection.org or contact info@crayoncollection.org.

Paliskates hosted a Fire Relief Skate Jam on June 7 at Stoner Park, with professional and amateur skateboarders, vendors, food trucks, and more. Supported by dozens of entities, including Councilmember Traci Park, city of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, and LA Strong Foundation, the event was hosted to support the Swarthmore Avenue skate shop in its rebuilding efforts after the Palisades fire.

Palisades Charter High School Social Sciences teacher and golf coach Dave Suarez received an Honored National Teaching Award in June for his “incredible impact on students during and after the Palisades fire.”

Suarez was nominated by his student, Jacob Leatherman.

“In January 2025, the Palisades fire brought devastation to California, destroying homes and parts of Palisades Charter High School,” read a statement from Honored. “In the aftermath, Suarez banded his golf teams together to help students navigate the challenges and surround them with support. During this time, Suarez saw how sports play a powerful role in bringing people together and providing a sense of normalcy for students during uncertain times.”

Leatherman said he is “forever grateful” for Suarez’ help getting him “back to the game” he loves.

“This recognition highlights extraordinary educators who inspire their students,” according to Honored. Suarez received a cash award and was featured on Inspiring Teachers: The Honored Podcast.

Honored, a nonprofit, is “dedicated to keeping great teachers in the classroom and inspiring a new generation of talent to pursue teaching.”

Palisades Charter High School graduating seniors attended a live Q&A event at Skirball Cultural Center on May 28 with alum will.i.am, Black Eyed Peas frontman, tech founder, CEO of FYI.AI and philanthropist.

“Pali High students [Miranda Casas and Joshua Tavasti] co-hosted the evening’s discussions, in which will.i.am shared inspirational advice and insights on a variety of topics, including the advantages of being focused, of understanding the problems you seek to solve in order to find effective solutions, the importance of paying it forward to improve local communities, the rise of women in STEAM fields, AI and jobs, and the necessity of persistence in the pursuit of your dreams regardless of your age,” according to information from the school.

The evening also included remarks from Pali High Executive Director/Principal Dr. Pam Magee and AP Spanish & Culture teacher Myrna Cervantes (Pali alum Class of ’93).

Honorary Town Sheriff Sam Laganà attended the wedding of Frank Hathaway Harrer—the 1995 Pacific Palisades First Baby of the Year— and Maëlle Poirier on Saturday, May 23, in Paris, France, at Mairie de Maisons-Alfort Hotel de Ville. Frank is the son of Chris Harrer and Pam Hathaway, and grandson of the late Frank Hathaway, a former leader of The Riviera Country Club. Frank and Maëlle reside in Paris.