Members of the Biola community took it upon themselves last week to organize response efforts to Westmont College, which was hit by the recent string of wildfires.

Last Thursday night, wildfires broke out in the Montecito, Calif. area, which is nestled in the hills of Santa Barbara. Around 6 p.m. flames erupted just above Westmont.

Approximately 800 students and faculty spent the night in their concrete, fire-safe gym while others found refuge in homes, hotels and churches nearby. By Sunday the winds had died down, and with them the imminent threat of more fire.

The campus lost several buildings, including Bauder Hall, which housed the psychology department. Westmont also lost its math and physics buildings and several modular classrooms. However, these structures were scheduled for demolition in the near future, according to the online version of The Horizon, Westmont’s student newspaper.

The main freshman housing, Clark and Page Halls, were the only dormitory buildings to suffer damage. Several sections of Clark were lost entirely, along with the home of the resident director. Page was more fortunate, suffering some interior damage that should be repaired by the end of the semester. The complete list of damage can be found on The Horizon Web site, http://horizon.westmont.edu.

Friday morning at chapel, Biola’s student body responded to news of the devastation. Todd Pickett came up to the front of the gym with a phone to his ear because he had Ben Patterson, campus chaplain at Westmont, on the line.

Pickett and chapel attendees listened as Patterson, accompanied by 16 students at his home, shared what he knew of the destruction and his own emotional response.

“It’s a very difficult time and we need your prayers,” Patterson said.

With Patterson and the students still on the phone, chapel attendees interceded aloud for the Westmont community. Pickett then offered a prayer.

After chapel, a team of five students set up tables outside the gym with pieces of paper and markers for students to write cards for Westmont students. Known as Operation Scribe, the team consists of Biola alum Nathan Steiner (’07) and freshmen Shirlee McCoy, Jonathan Goossen, Charity Thatcher and Rebeca Aulie. Steiner and McCoy had the original idea for the response group.

“I called Nathan,” McCoy said. “We decided we needed to do something and were just like, what should we do? So we talked about it and this is what we came up with.”

Steiner commented on their decision to initiate this particular method of outreach.

“We don’t really know what they need, and there will probably be people giving lots of stuff,” he said. “We wanted to come up with something we could do that was specific to Biola. … This is a tangible way for us to show our love and support for our brothers and sisters in Christ. We want them to know that we care.”

The five said they were determined to gather 1,336 handwritten cards from Biola students to send to each student at Westmont. They attempted to get everyone coming out of chapel to sign several cards. Thatcher, Aulie and Goossen all said that they were extremely excited to be a part of a community effort to reach those in need in a spiritual way.

The Operation Scribe team left papers in dorms and the SUB all weekend and reached their goal. Steiner said that they are going to be personally driving the notes to Westmont as soon as they hear when students will be returning to campus. They want to make sure all of Biola knows to stay updated on future efforts by joining the Operation Scribe group on Facebook.

Steiner asked for Biola’s prayers for the notes and cards being delivered.

“Pray that the Lord would direct each letter written with nobody specific in mind to the person who would most benefit,” he said. “We’re sister schools. Not just because we’re universities but because we’re Christian schools. This is the body of Christ reaching out.”

Brenda Velasco, manager of public relations and internal communications at Biola, said that while no other response efforts from the university are set in stone, it is important that students keep the Westmont and Santa Barbara communities in their hearts prayers. Once Biola hears of tangible things they need, the university will see how they can help more specifically. Velasco said President Corey and President Beebe, of Westmont, were in communication all weekend.