Olympians make surprise visit to California schools hit by wildfire

[Nergal]

 

Students at two schools in Agoura Hills, California, that narrowly avoided being destroyed by a fierce wildfire received surprise visits this week from Olympic athletes who brought new sports equipment and delivered much needed cheer.


At the Yerba Buena Elementary School, which is surrounded by hillsides blackened by the Woolsey Fire, softball player Hannah August donned new catcher’s gear and shared a laugh with members of the U.S. National Softball team.


“It means the world to us,” she said. The sports equipment shed at her school, Agoura High, was destroyed in the fire.


“These are the girls and the people we look up to supporting us and surprising us to help us get through this tough time.”


The Woolsey Fire ignited on Nov. 8 in the mountains above Malibu and torched some 96,949 acres across Los Angeles and Ventura counties before it was contained, destroying 1,643 structures and killing three.


The conflagration erupted one day after a U.S. Marine Corps combat veteran opened fire at a bar and dance hall in nearby Thousand Oaks, killing 12 people before taking his own life.