Dear Friends and Neighbors: The Halloween festivities in the Columbia Condominium on Friday night were wonderful. It was incredible seeing all the children dressed up in costumes trick or treating in the halls. (For those of you who may have noticed, my son Evan started out the day as Mickey Mouse, then changed into Spiderman, and ended the evening as Scooby Doo!) After the wonderful party in the gym, my wife Sandy and I ended the evening with a discussion about how fortunate we are and our children are. How we live in great building with a great community of families and friends and how our kids are so lucky to have such a comfortable environment in which to grow up.

And then reality set in last night at 6PM when I turned on CNN.

A news reporter for CNN was doing a live interview with a young mother in San Diego County who had presumably lost her home to the wildfires. The mother told the story of how on Friday night, the children in the shelter went trick or treating and how her daughter had been looking forward for weeks to wear her Sleeping Beauty costume. The mother had apparently taken the costume when they evacuated to the shelter but when the daughter asked where the Tiara and Wand were that accompany the costume, the mother informed her daughter that they had been left behind in their home. The daughter responded "So you mean they burned?"

I reacted very emotionally to this story for two reasons.

First, I thought how fortunate my son was to have been able to wear not just one costume on Halloween but three when there was a little girl out there who had just lost ALL her belongings.

Second, I had spent the better part of Saturday afternoon trying to explain to Evan the need to share ALL his toys with his 2 year old brother Josh and how he should "step back" and appreciate how lucky he is that he has seemingly hundreds of toys and stuffed animals when there are some children out there who have none.

When I explained to Evan what the mother on CNN was saying and how her daughter had lost everything in the fire, he suggested (with a little prodding) that we should collect some of his toys that he doesn't play with anymore and mail them to Aunt Molly (who lives in San Diego) and that maybe Aunt Molly could take them to that shelter to give to that mother and her daughter. And then Evan, on his own, suggested, "Dad, maybe we should put some clothes in the box and some coins too." His words, not mine.

Long story short, on this coming Wednesday morning, I plan to drive a truck cross country to San Diego with three of my friends to deliver toys and clothes to the families who lost their homes in the California fires. 3300 homes were destroyed. 3300 families just lost everything. And while this effort might make just a small dent in helping some people to replace the "things" they lost, I think we as New Yorkers have a greater message to send post 9/11 which is simply "Thank You." Thanks for all the help you gave us, all your support, all your love. Here is a little of that back.

If you would like to help, please explain this in your own way to your children and drop off a toy or some clothing or books or something that you think might be appropriate for these families who just lost everything in the boxes we will provide in the lobby.

Since late last night, my friends and I are trying to quickly set up an infrastructure to make this a successful journey -- everything from truck rentals, to a web site, to a 501c3 non-profit. A local food store owner who I told this idea to at 10AM this morning just gave me $1,000 cash to help defray some of the costs.

Whatever you can do is appreciated and once again, thanks to all the volunteers and Columbia staff who made Halloween so special for our kids!

Your neighbors,
Jeff, Sandy, Evan & Josh Parness
email: (jeff@NewYorkSaysThankYou.org)