This Cal Poly student drove a truck full of supplies to wildfire survivors in Santa Rosa

Like many of her peers, Cal Poly student Shelby Green spent last Thursday getting ready for a long weekend. But her plans didn’t consist of hanging out at the beach or a road trip to Disneyland.

Green spent her weekend loading supplies into the back of a pickup truck and driving north to help victims of the Northern California wildfires.

After class Thursday, a trio — consisting of Green; her brother, Logan Green, a Cuesta College student; and her boyfriend, Tyler Walsh, who is in the Army Reserve — drove to Santa Rosa with around 15 boxes and bags containing food, household items, toys and books.

“It filled the entire back of my boyfriend’s truck,” Shelby Green said.

But that wasn’t all they took: Green, who is from San Luis Obispo County, also brought 30 handmade cards from her mother’s second-grade class at Sinsheimer Elementary School to people staying at the Finley Community Center evacuation center.

“They were really, really, really happy to receive the cards from the second graders,” Green said. “Something so simple as a handmade card from a 7-year-old made people burst into tears.”

Green said the cards provided people with “a burst of joy or silliness in their day” after weeks of coping with the devastating fires that ripped through Sonoma and Napa county wine country, destroying thousands of homes and buildings, burning 245,000 acres and killing at least 42 people. She described some of that destruction, seeing people living out of their cars and omnipresent response personnel everywhere.

“The effect of it is just everywhere,” she said. “It’s surreal, it’s so surreal.”

Green, who is pursuing her master’s degree and teaching credential in special education at Cal Poly, spent four years at Sonoma State University.

“I was part of the community,” she said.

She said her family, especially her mom, always emphasized helping others. But it wasn’t easy.

“It was a really super busy week. My head was spinning the entire week trying to catch up,” she said, describing her struggle to balance demanding coursework with a social media campaign to solicit donations. “I’m still playing catch-up.”

Green said she got back to San Luis Obispo on Monday shortly before class; she spent the drive down doing homework.

She said the experience was worth the stress, especially for the chance to brighten the day of children whose lives were turned upside down by the fires.

“While everybody lost so much, the kids are really affected by it,” she said. “They don’t understand, and they’re pretty scared.”

Green said she hopes to see others in the SLO community step up to donate however they can.

“There is a big need for items still. They need food and water. Everyday things you don’t know about,” she said. “Just the scale of this disaster is unimaginable.”

This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 2:57 PM with the headline "This Cal Poly student drove a truck full of supplies to wildfire survivors in Santa Rosa."