Above: A Southborough resident who lost her father in the Camp Fire is asking the community to support survivors who lost everything in the wildfire. (image from North Valley Community Foundation on Facebook)
For most of us in Southborough, the wildfires in California are horrifying but far removed. But for at least one resident, the Camp Fire in Paradise, CA was a personal tragedy. It has prompted her to reach out to the public to ask for support for the surviving victims.
Southborough’s Christina Lamb’s father was first missing then confirmed as killed by the fire. She asked me to share her father’s story and a link to a charity that is helping survivors – the North Valley Community Foundation.
Lamb wrote:
It is with tremendous sorrow that I inform you the DNA match confirms my father and his beloved dog Jack died together in his home during the Camp Fire of Paradise, CA. While the passing of an 88-year old man is not usually considered tragic, the horrific circumstances of his death, the week-long heartbreaking search to locate him after the fire, and the sudden finality of the loss which includes everything he owned, make this particularly tough. . .
We are hoping people will donate in Dad’s honor—or just donate—to the North Valley Community Foundation at www.nvcf.org which is a charity we have vetted. They are helping the thousands of families who have been left utterly destitute by the fire.
In a previous Facebook post, while she was waiting for news on her father, she shared:
In the meantime, nearly 14,000 homes were burned to the ground. Paradise (originally named “Poverty Ridge”) is not an affluent area. Most of the displaced residents lost their homes, everything they owned, their livelihoods, their relatives’ homes, their schools, their banks. They are in desperate straits.
There is a known charity out there that is helping these folks.
It’s called North Valley Community Foundation: https://www.nvcf.org/
Feel free to check it out yourself. Mark Zuckerberg and his wife matched donations through their foundation.
If you would like to help, please make a donation. If you wish to make it in my father’s honor, that would be of great comfort to my family. His name is Julian Binstock.
As for her father, Lamb’s message last night eulogized:
My father Julian Binstock was a magnificent man. Tall, with jet-black hair and dark blue eyes, he was movie-star handsome. Raised nearly penniless, he was the first member of his family to attend college, which he did at Harvard on so many scholarships he was able to give money back each year. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna cum Laude with a degree in Romance Languages, having also acquired the polish and charm that characterized the rest of his life. He became manager of foreign distribution for Paramount Pictures, operating as a business-diplomat, working ten years in Brussels where his youngest three children were born, then three years in Tokyo and a year in Paris, before returning to the United States where he wrapped up his career in Hollywood as Vice President of Warner Communications, the parent company to Warner Bros. A truly gifted linguist, he imparted a love of words, language, and eloquence to his four children.
During the last ten years, he lived at the Feather Canyon Retirement Community in Paradise CA where he was awarded a plaque each year for being “The Funniest Resident.” His love of humor and desire to make others laugh made him a popular gentleman at the center. He adored his dogs, all of whom were rescues, starting with Kilo (since we got him at the pound) through more dogs with metric-themed names—Two-point-Two (“Tutu”), Gram, Millie and so on—to his final beloved companion Jack, a gentle border collie mix who died by his side.
Her Facebook post last night included more recent photos of her father and his dog. You can reach out to her through that post to share your condolences:
So very sorry for your loss.