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News & Events
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On October 21, 2006, the building that houses the DrawBridge offices was destroyed by a three-alarm fire. Thankfully there were no casualities.
Update: DrawBridge staff moved into temporary, donated office space in northern San Rafel November 6, 2006 thanks to MarinSpace, where we are sharing space with other non-profits including the Marin Arts Council and the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership.
DrawBridge is extremely grateful to MarinSpace for contacting us immediately after the fire with their generous offer. We are still seeking permanent offices in the Canal neighborhood in San Rafael, California.
Purchasing DrawBridge items through our Shop will also aide us in the rebuilding process. Luckily, all items from the DrawBridge Store were not damaged in the fire, as the warehouse is off-site from our administrative offices. shop now>>
Thank you to all for the outpouring of support and generosity. Please stay tuned for more details on our progress and our new location.
Our phone number is now (415) 444-0930 and our email is still functioning. Please be in touch.
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Marin Independent Journal - DrawBridge's leader upbeat after fire, but help needed
by Beth Ashley
Marin Independent Journal
Article Launched:11/05/2006 04:56:20 AM PST
A FIRE can destroy dreams in one poof of smoke.
Gloria Simoneaux lost 30 years worth of children's artwork when the building at 88 Belvedere St. went up in flames two weeks ago, and the offices of DrawBridge were destroyed.
Simoneaux founded DrawBridge 18 years ago to nurture homeless children and let them express their emotions through art.
I knew her when DrawBridge was just getting started.
Before then, she had taught art to sick children in the cancer ward at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco.
When she left, she didn't forget them.
She began teaching homeless children in shelters in San Francisco and Marin. Their drawings were often of houses with smoke coming from their chimneys and mommies standing in their doors. Simoneaux had greeting cards made of their artwork, which the children then sold. At Simoneaux's suggestion they used their earnings to buy Christmas presents for the kids in the cancer ward.
I witnessed the gift-giving - homeless kids celebrating Christmas with kids who had cancer - one afternoon long ago. It would have brought tears to your eyes.
Simoneaux was teaching a lesson. Even if you are homeless, you have something to give. And no matter how gloomy your situation, there is always someone worse off than you.
That's Simoneaux's feeling about the Oct. 21 fire. "No one was hurt, nobody died. And we will rebuild."
But you can't blame her for mourning.
The DrawBridge agency, which operated out of its Canal area office, was the wellspring for children's art programs in poor neighborhoods and shelters at 29 sites in Marin, San Francisco and four other Bay Area counties.
All the agency's art supplies were destroyed, to say nothing of the furniture, office machines and computers.
What hurts Simoneaux most is losing the children's art. Staff members had rescued some of it from the burned building "in big soggy piles," and she took it home to see what she could salvage. She spread it to dry all over her house and back yard, but it was too fragile to save. "It just crumbled in my fingers."
The loss, she says, is "enormously painful." Gone are 18 years worth of paintings done by homeless children. Gone are the paintings by children in the cancer ward, "most of whom have died. These paintings were their legacy."
She feels guilty that DrawBridge children entrusted her with their work "and I couldn't protect it."
"Getting rid of their artwork was just awful. These kids have already experienced loss after loss after loss."
Simoneaux was in Ethiopia when the fire occurred; she had gone there to teach art to children in orphanages. She has made several previous trips to Africa, teaching teachers, connecting with women, working with abandoned and abused children, the victims of lawless societies.
She flew home immediately, hoping against hope the fire wasn't as bad as it turned out to be.
She is still taking stock and soldiering on. "The staff - three full-time workers - has just been tremendous." At the moment they are working out of Starbucks in downtown San Rafael. "We still had a payroll to do. We have to deal with the insurance company, and talk to real estate people about finding new offices."
Garth Neil of San Rafael, former board president and longtime supporter, says, "The terrible irony is that a group that worked for the homeless is now homeless."
Canal Alliance has offered a small space on a temporary basis for classes; the Parent Services Project has offered its conference room for a board meeting. Simoneaux says a family in the Canal area has begun a fund drive to buy art materials.
"We need all kinds of art supplies - high-quality tempera or acrylic paints, paint brushes of any size, good-quality white paper, markers, colored pencils, clay, construction paper, anything ," she says.
If you can donate, call 456-1269. The office phone is still working. They also need a fax machine, printer, Apple computers, access to a copy machine.
Neil is doing what he can to rebuild the agency, which he says is "so needed - for kids who have nothing, for kids who have less than nothing."
Simoneaux vows to reopen offices in the heart of the Canal. "We are invested in so many families there."
Her love for children is huge, she says. "That didn't go up in smoke."
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