South Lake Tahoe girl helps ease pain of young Camp Fire victims

Donations have been transported by the car and truck load from South Lake Tahoe to Paradise, full of help for the victims of the Camp Fire which, to date, has destroyed 9,700 homes, businesses and other structures and burned 149,500 acres.

One of those loads was delivered by 13-year-old Jaymee Levin.

When Jaymee heard about the Camp Fire and learned that over 50 families and five teachers from Inspire Charter Schools lost their homes, she felt she had to do something to help out. Jaymee is a homeschool student with Inspire Charter Schools in South Lake Tahoe and felt a kinship with the other homeschool children in Paradise.

Two years ago Jayme's older sister's family lost their home in the Loma Chiquita ire in Santa Cruz. Jayme was there when the fire started and they all had to evacuate.

“My sister lost everything and my stuff got burned up. It was horrible and I know what it feels like,” Jaymee remembered.

One of the Inspire teachers, who lost her home in Paradise, released an email detailing what items the families devastated by the wildfire needed most: backpacks for carrying donated items, blankets, stuffed animals, art and school supplies and gift cards for groceries.

She knew she had to do something so Jayme made a flyer detailing the needs and distributed it at her homeschool’s Enrichment Academy and her Chabad Jewish Community.

Donations poured in. In just two days Jaymee had collected 39 children’s backpacks filled with supplies and numerous gift cards and cash. Jaymee and her mom, Khymberleigh Levin, drove the donations down to an Inspire donation center in Rocklin on Thursday, November 15.

After Jaymee dropped the backpacks off she remarked, “I realized just how lucky I am, that I can eat dinner with my family around a dinner table and that I have a nice warm bed to sleep in tonight, and tomorrow when I wake up I know where I will be. I really feel bad for all those children who have no idea where they will be eating or sleeping tonight and many nights in the future. I also felt empowered, that in such a short time, I was able to pull this project off and donate so many backpacks. My only wish was that I could donate a backpack to every single child affected by the fire!"

"About 20 families came and children got the backpacks," said Shannon Carpenter, Senior Director, Inspire North who took the filled backpacks up the fire are on Friday. "We were blown away by Jaymee's generosity and heart!"

Thank you to Carey Brown of Inspire Charter School in South Lake Tahoe for the information provided in this story.