7-Year-Old Girl Who Lost Home In Woolsey Wildfire Organizes Toy Drive For Other California Children

A little girl who lost everything in the California wildfires is looking past her own misfortune to help other kids, arranging a toy drive for kids who lost their toys in the raging fires, People is reporting.

Sophia Novotny, like countless other children across parts of California, lost everything in the California wildfires – in her case the Woolsey Fire, which is currently raging around the L.A. suburbs of Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley. Her mom, April Novotny tells KABC-TV (Los Angeles) that the young lass was, of course, devastated when she found out that all of her belongings, especially her toys, were destroyed in the fire.

But apparently her own grief was overshadowed by the realization that countless other kids also lost their toys, says April.

“Very quickly she realized that our things were gone, so the day that we lost the house, she said…’Let’s get some toys for the other kids who lost their house.'”

Moved by her daughter’s generosity, April made some phone calls, and soon enough, with the help of a local radiology clinic, The Sophia’s Wishes toy drive was arranged in the parking lot of a nearby business park. It was held on Sunday, and by all accounts, it was a raging success.

Hundreds of people turned up to donate their toys, which were made available no questions asked, to any family who wanted them. And though it’s still a little early for him to start turning up, even Santa Claus made an appearance.

April wrote that the experience helped Sophia cope with the loss she has experienced.

“These children want to help, and want to feel in control of something in this whirlwind we call life. She feels a little more in confident of her place in the world today.”

And as for Sophie, she told a KABC reporter that she just wanted to do what is right.

“I just want to help other kids ’cause I know how it feels to lost [sic] your things.”

Feel-good stories like this are rare bits of comfort for the thousands of people who have lost everything, have been displaced, have lost loved ones, or some combination thereof due to the rampaging California wildfires. As of this writing, according to the Today Show, at least 80 people have died in the fires and more than a thousand are unaccounted for. Moreover, the death toll is almost certain to climb once the fires have been put out, as searchers undertake the grim task of finding and identifying human remains.