Middletown opponent pitching in to help devastated community

On Friday night they would have been adversaries. But the fire changed everything.

El Molino’s football team was planning to travel north this week to take on the Middletown Mustangs in a non-conference game that would have given one of the teams its first win of the season.

It was also Middletown’s homecoming celebration, always good for some good cheer and camaraderie.

Instead, with the devastating Valley fire still raging out of control and much of Middletown essentially burned off the face of the earth, El Molino boosters have become Mustangs supporters.

“All you can think of is the worst, so I started thinking of what we could do for them,” said Ron Wright, El Molino’s booster club president.

School officials canceled the game. That was an easy call. But then what?

“We wanted to target directly the high school kids who were really affected,” he said. “About a third of the students lost their homes. Most of the athletes take their stuff home on Friday, so it’s probably all gone.

“Plus, this was their homecoming week. They lose out, in a big way. It’s an utter disaster.”

Wright started a GoFundMe account - find it at www.gofundme.com/MiddletownMustangs - with the goal of raising $10,000 to help Middletown athletes replace some of their athletic gear.

It had raised $1,000 in the first two hours.

“This would go a long way to helping them rebuild their programs, as many will struggle to just get the basics, and have nothing left over for a new pair of cleats, volleyballs, soccer equipment, and so on,” Wright said.

He also challenged other Sonoma County League schools that play Middletown to take up collections also.

Another El Molino booster, Becky Anderson Sani, has organized a two-day supply drive at the El Molino gym, and plans to transport the collections to Middletown after Wednesday.

They are asking for gift cards to sporting goods stores, Wal-Mart or pre-paid Visas to help families begin to rebuild with the basics.

“On your way to our gym, stop by and grab a $10 gift card. It might mean you can’t have that Starbucks this week but it’ll mean some kid gets new socks or other necessities,” she wrote in her Facebook plea. “We’ll make sure it gets to people in need.”

Lions boosters are hoping to plan a two-team team dinner on Friday as well, to give the Middletown kids some semblance of normalcy.

“It’s not a wealthy community. A lot of these kids won’t have renters’ insurance or anything that will help replace this stuff,” Wright said. “We’re going to collect as much as we can, and I challenge all the other SCL schools to do the same.”

Wright hopes that on Friday, instead of driving to their football game, the Lions boosters will be able to host a team dinner at the high school for both teams. The home where they had planned the dinner burned down, he said.

Details on that event were fluid.

Further details can be found on the El Molino Football Facebook page. Sani’s supply drive will continue until 8 p.m. Tuesday in the gym.

You can reach Lori A. Carter at 521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.