When a Colorado Community Was Incinerated in the Recent Wildfire, This Store's General Manager Made a Plea for Donations to Help Victims. She Received So Many, She Ran Out of Room

As Erin Johnson drove away from her home in Louisville, Colo., on December 30, 2021, she was more scared than she'd ever been in her life. 'And if you ask people who know me, you'd know that's really saying something,” says Johnson. She and her family were given mere minutes to evacuate their home due to a fast-moving fire fueled by hurricane-level winds…the blaze now known as the Marshall Fire, one that destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Johnson's neighborhood.

Luckily, Johnson's house was still standing…but the overwhelming grief she felt for her neighbors who'd lost everything overshadowed her relief that she and her family hadn't. So, she decided to do something.

As the general manager of Neptune Mountaineering, an outdoor clothing and equipment shop in Boulder, Colo., Johnson knew her colleagues in the gear industry might be able to help with donations…everything from winter coats, hats, and gloves to basics like socks, shoes, and kids' backpacks. She sent an email to the store's vendors asking for donations. Even better, Neptune's owners agreed to provide free overnight shipping for all donations…and Johnson reached out to Conscious Alliance, an organization that provides 503c non-profit status for the kind of relief she was trying to provide for her community.

'I wanted to make it so there was no way people could say ‘no,'” she says.

Johnson's efforts paid off. In one week, Neptune Mountaineering collected over $200,000 worth of products and set up a 'shop” in their store for victims of the fire to take what they need for themselves and their neighbors. The response has been overwhelming, says Johnson. 'Within hours, Rab gave us $40,000 worth of down jackets, La Sportiva gave us more than 500 pairs of shoes, and Deuter hasn't stopped delivering clothing and backpacks,” she says.

'I'll never forget one guy who came in and showed me a picture of he and his wife on New Year's Eve…their 17th wedding anniversary…standing in front of their burned-down house,” she says, choking back tears. 'He was crying. I was crying.” As the man started looking for items he needed, a customer walked in and asked what fire victims were most in need of. The answer was gloves, and the woman purchased and donated multiple pairs. 'I immediately brought two pairs over to that man and said, ‘Happy anniversary,'” says Johnson.

Now, at the end of a week-long effort that had Johnson putting in 18-hour workdays, she has some advice for others who want to do something when tragedy strikes: Just start.

'I didn't know what I was doing at first, and I was completely overwhelmed,” says Johnson. 'But I kept at it. And if you can do that, you can accomplish really amazing things.”