After the Eaton Fire, Holding on to Joy
Mariposa Night. Image: Kitty Cahalan / Caltech
Over the past year, Caltech staff, alumni, and students have united with other locals to help Altadena and Pasadena heal from the Southern California wildfires.
By Ann Motrunich
The LA wildfires of January 2025, especially the Eaton blaze that burned through Altadena, displaced thousands of Caltech staff members and scholars, hundreds of whom lost their homes and belongings.
Their Caltech colleagues and the broader community responded generously. Individuals gave their time and money to promote the area’s recovery; Caltech scientists dove into fire-related research to understand the full impact of the disaster, and community members equally leaned into efforts to sustain the social connections and joy that have been the hallmark of the region.
“Places with high social capital, where people are connected to each other, are the places that recover from disasters,” said visiting associate in geophysics Lucy Jones in a Caltech Science Exchange interview shortly after the fires. “We need to hold on to the joy we have in our community. We need to hold concerts and events, not just for the next three months but for the next three years, so that this remains a place that you want to be in.”
A Pop-up Shop to Aid Fire Victims
Items for sale at the pop-up event included Altadena-themed tote bags and Juancarlos Chan's portrait of his cat, Ernie. Image: Ann Motrunich
In the weeks after the Eaton Fire started, Pasadena residents Rory McKenna (BS ’99) and Kimberly Junmookda got to work. The couple helped set up and manage GoFundMe pages for five households affected by the fires. McKenna and Junmookda went door to door to raise money. “So many of our Caltech friends and Rory’s work friends were in Altadena,” Junmookda says.
Looking for more ways to support fire victims, Junmookda learned of apps she could use to design Altadena-themed T-shirts and gifts and sell them online. After hearing about the online sales, an old work acquaintance who now owns the Boba ChaCha café in Old Pasadena volunteered to host a pop-up fundraising event with items for sale donated by the local community.
After McKenna and Junmookda listed the event in the Pasadena Star News and invited friends and their neighborhood, the community rallied. LAist mentioned the event. The gym the couple goes to and the mechanic shop they frequent put up posters. And then, the night before the event, several Caltech alumni and other friends showed up to transform the café into a pop-up shop.
Caltech information technologist Juancarlos Chan (BS ’00), who has known McKenna since they were first-year students at Caltech, was one of the volunteers. “There was such a feeling of community,” Chan says. “People got in touch, and everyone wanted to help.”
Businesses such as Caltech neighbor Century Books donated items to sell. So did individuals like Chan, an artist since childhood, who framed prints of one of his paintings.
By the time the doors opened on February 5, 2025, Boba ChaCha had transformed into a gallery of prints, sculptures, crafts, books, jewelry, and other gifts. A guitarist played music; visitors stayed to talk, commiserate, and enjoy good company.
Junmookda, McKenna, and friends raised more than $90,000 to help households who lost homes and belongings to the Eaton Fire. “The money provides a buffer,” McKenna says. “But I think the main thing is that the warmth of the community helped make them feel supported.”
“In Altadena,” Chan says, “you go for a run and everybody that you run into says hello, and then they recognize you the next time. It would be wonderful if that community stayed and people still felt attached to it.”
Caltech graduate students Zachary Chase, Wes Patel, and Karyn Seixas collaborated with the Caltech Store and an artist to create gift items with artwork that unites symbols of Pasadena, Altadena, and Caltech, such as roses, parrots, mountains, gears, turtles, and rockets. Sales will continue to benefit the Caltech and JPL Disaster Relief Fund through at least September 30, 2026. “We wanted to do what we could to help,” Chase said in a Caltech interview, “even though it might not be giving people their houses back.”
Storytelling Event at Caltech Rekindles Joy
On July 12, 2025, hundreds of people gathered at Caltech for Mariposa Night, a storytelling event that celebrated Altadena and helped to protect and rebuild its collective memory after the Eaton Fire.
Kitty Cahalan, the assistant director for educational outreach at Caltech’s Center for Teaching, Learning, and Outreach (CTLO), conceived of the free event after she heard Jones explain how important it is to sustain people’s spirits through the long effort to return and rebuild. Cahalan then co-produced Mariposa Night as part of her Leadership Pasadena volunteer coursework with classmates Jessica Pérez del Toro of Westridge School and Partnership for Success; Ernesto Covarrubias of Pasadena Public Library; Carmen Rodriguez of Pasadena Parks and Recreation; and José Salas, a Pasadena City College student and US Navy veteran. Several Caltech departments cosponsored the event with Leadership Pasadena and Sierra Madre’s Lt. Kenneth Bell VFW Post 3208, offering space, offsetting costs, and providing expertise.
Tacos 210, a food truck that narrowly escaped the fire, sold food to eventgoers on Beckman Lawn, while a mariachi band from Eliot Arts Magnet school and a string duet from Pasadena High School performed. An accompanying resource fair featured organizations focused on community well-being.
Inside Beckman Auditorium, actor, director, author, and local historian Roberta Martinez emceed a performance featuring seven local storytellers and a blues guitarist. A mid-event moment of silent on-screen storytelling featured architectural and landscape paintings by Barbara Field called Crack Me Up Until the Light Gets In: Scenes from Altadena. The storytellers, including 32-year Caltech employee Leslie Rico, shared memories of their family lives, neighborhoods, businesses, and adventures in and around Altadena.
Cahalan, who believes these gatherings help honor and sustain Altadena and the surrounding community, is now helping to plan a similar event that will offer business owners a chance to share their stories. It will be on March 14, 2026, at the Eaton Fire Collaboratory.
Rico expressed similar sentiments when she closed her story on Mariposa Night, looking out at hundreds of audience members grieving the destruction of neighborhoods and homes. “When I think about home,” she said, “I think about the scents, the tastes, the feelings, the memories. Together, they embody home for me. And so, I entreat you all to love your neighbor, as we are called to do. Because especially now, love is a need.”