 Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for bearing with us. I hope you've got chalk marks all over your hands. My name is Pat Kerrigan. I'm with KSRO Radio in Santa Rosa. They went to work a year ago to here to talk about it tonight. As you can see it's going to be a low-key celebration commemoration really of a year ago tonight and a firestorm that swept through us for some the anniversary of tonight for some it is tomorrow depending on where you live. But we all agree that any opportunity for us to get together with our community especially on a night and a date as important as this one is a good idea. I'm happy to be joined on stage but with Chris Smith from the press Democrats and Chris said we've got a little bit of work to do. It's gonna be a short ceremony and we want to pay homage to those we lost and to those lucky enough to be still standing here this evening. I would like to first welcome the Santa Rosa firefighters Honor Guard. They are please welcome them and they are going to be presenting the flag on stage here and let's start there. Thank you to the Santa Rosa firefighters Honor Guard. Very much so. You know in October 7th of last year many of us had a fondness for our first responders and now they are ingrained into our cellular beings and we thank them and tonight we also honor those among us who became first responders on that fearsome night and are responsible for so many lives saved and I hope we don't forget about that because our our personal best natures picked in and as a result of that so many uncountable lives were saved. You see up behind me some of the leadership of the city of Santa Rosa, the county of Sonoma, our state legislature and our national leaders as well. It's going to be kind of interesting to have them here because nobody's gonna say a word. They are all here in support of their communities the communities they represent but they are not among the speakers tonight so thank you very kindly for all the work that you've done over the course of the last year and I know you're not finished yet. Please let me welcome our first speaker tonight. I was very proud to meet her earlier today. Her name is Isabella Lopez. She is the founder of the Ryeesis Collective and this is an organization. It's a community organization and their mission is to elevate community resiliency and challenge oppression by creating safe spaces for authentic artistic expression. Some of which you saw tonight the Collective came together to offer artists and teachers of color resources of a space to work in. Programming events shows and activities to affect social and political change through art and community building and as you know we're really about community building around here. We're big fans of it so Isabella would you like to come up and join us? Collective mural of artistic expression on the side of the court hall square using chalk to share words or images reflecting on the years since the wildfires. It's a commemoration of a community coming together in hardship or rising and becoming stronger because of it. So we'll be here today till dusk and tomorrow Tuesday from 10 a.m. until 6 to complete it. So she is at the Collective booth. It's the red tent on the right for details and to give a brief talk to partake in the art meeting. So gracias todos por estar aquí. Todos están invitados a participar en un mural colectivo de expresión artística en las banquetas del centro utilizando giz para compartir palabras o imágenes sobre su reflexión de un año desde los incendios. Es una commemoration de nuestra comunidad que se unió durante un tiempo bien difícil pero que se levantó y se fortalició por ello. Estaremos hoy hasta el atardecer y mañana martes de diez de la mañana hasta las seis de la tarde para completarlo. So vengan al puesto de raíces colectivos es la la la lona roja para ganar su su giz y a ganar más detalles del mural. Muchas gracias. Hello everybody. I'm Chris Smith with the press Democrat. I'm one of those. Thank you. Who is fortunate to be able to perceive that this past year once again was a year that went quickly. They seem to go faster and faster but I've got to keep in mind that there are a whole lot of people here throughout our community for whom this was very likely to the slowest year ever. A slow and agonizing year and very painful year. I'm going to mention in my column tomorrow. I hope you might catch it that I would hope that tomorrow we would all allow ourselves a moment of silence either in private or in the company of friends and just kind of let your mind go where it will go tomorrow on the one year anniversary of this historic firestorm. I would hope that we would recall that there are there are a whole lot of people to whom we need to continue to feel grateful. There are a lot of people we have to assure that are never forgotten. So I hope that tomorrow you might treat yourself to a moment of silence. It's my honor to present our speaker tonight, Mike Mark Guillarducci. Mark S. Guillarducci serves as the director of the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. He was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown on July 1, 2013. Mr. Guillarducci previously served as Secretary of the California Emergency Management Agency. He was appointed to that post by the governor February 2012. He is a member of the cabinet. He serves as the governor's Homeland Security Advisor and oversees statewide public safety, emergency management, emergency communications, counter terrorism efforts, and the state threat assessment system. We're very pleased to have with us this evening, Mark Guillarducci. All right, well, good evening, everyone. It is such an honor for me to be with you tonight. This community, this family in all the years in the job field that I've worked in almost 40 years, the events of last year, certainly were one of the most tragic and most affected that I've ever experienced. The amount of loss our communities experienced during those fires clearly left an enormous scar both physically and emotionally. And the process of healing and recovery is still ongoing as we all know. And I'm so, so deeply impressed with the community that I've seen and how you responded collectively with such amazing determination. It makes the difference in being able to recover from such a tragic event. Truly the days after the fires were out in control. The communities of the North Bay were already looking and saying to us at the state, okay, now what do we have to do to get this going? Let's get this cleaned up. Let's move forward. And without hesitation, community groups made up of nurses and teachers and students and public safety personnel retired, young and old, countless of private sector, non governmental organizations, partners all rallied to come together in a motion of really one team, one fight in getting the community both cleaned up and move forward in the recovery process. You know, it's a thousands of firefighters and law enforcement and emergency personnel that control and put out the fires. However, it really took this entire community, this entire state and even the help of some other states to help begin the recovery process. Those first days just under a year ago now were critically important to our communal healing process. But I think it's just as important what we do today, tomorrow and the next day as a family, as a community. Tonight, we remember those lost, those whose lives have forever forever been changed. And we celebrate in our community what we've accomplished in just one short year. We look forward to the future with confidence and conviction that we continue to rise to the challenge. And we will continue to do this together. My thoughts and prayers all to the people of Sonoma County and the surrounding communities Napa Lake and Mendocino. Thank you very much. We learned a lot about poetry a year ago. And for the next days after that, we learned a lot about poetry about this amazing undirected focus that we all shared a common goal and a common purpose. And it really was like some kind of bizarre poetry. But what the end result was that we all ended up working together, which leads us to this commemoration today. In light of that poetry, we wanted to bring to you tonight a couple of prime examples of it and the way that words work to heal us too. I'd like to introduce you to Denise Rizzo. She's 12 years old. She's a sixth grader at Wright Charter School. She is a proud Raisa's Collective's Program participant in the program called Wright the Power, W-R-I-T-E, the power, yeah, exposes intercity youth to creating writing workshops right here in the Redwoods. Denise's other hobbies include get this boxing, playing basketball, and now writing poetry. And we're glad she's here. Please welcome Denise Rizzo. Actually, Denise Rizzo couldn't be here today. Well, you look like a fine representative for Denise. What's your name? Isabella Newell. All right, Isabella. Take it away, baby. This is a poem that I wrote called My Memory of the Thunders. The fires were around and they made me power. And now that they've gone and moved back my power, T-O-W-E-R, fighting the fires left a big battle scar. Scum, S-C-A-R. Now I just wonder how many students I just learned. A word that I cannot describe because when I think about the fires, I always get a bad vibe. But something that you feel, because sometimes people can't keep it real, or another word for reality. People say the fires are going to be real, but can we have mine in town? Isabella, Maryweather, as we get that straight. Thank you very much. That was beautiful. Imagine having on your resume Poet Laureate. I think that's something we all envision as a grand description of part of what we do. And our next guest is just that. She is the Poet Laureate of Sonoma County. Her name is Maya Kosla. And she is the 2018 Poet Laureate of Sonoma County. She's written Web of Water and Keele Bone, her new poetry book, All the Fires of Wind and Light will be out next spring. Her Poet Laureate project is bringing Sonoma voices together to respond and bring a sense of hope. Lots of different voices of hope after the fires. The series of gatherings and readings with Maya will be, she will be doing that through next year, listening to our voices and putting them together in a program that we can all appreciate. Please help me welcome the Poet Laureate of Sonoma County, Maya Kosla. Thank you very much for including the strength of words in this program. And I read three works. They're short and they are all inspired by those who have lost and thrived after the fires, gained strength after the fires. And I've been talking to people and the first gathering will be October 14th. And the second January 10th, there's going to be a series of gatherings next year. And everyone is invited, especially if you feel like words can give you strength. Diablo wins. Notes from the Sonoma Complex fires October 2017. We walk to shrill voices and smoke, winds letting go, messages flying far, a pine and cedar instance of imminence, wrapping the stars. Santa Anna, Diablo, fawn, pages flapping, nothing to hold the books, the photos, the shared cups of tea to the moment, rooms loosened from meaning, walls turning into paper in the hands of chance, anything, anything grabbed without thought, the mind a leaf spinning, the prayers caught in our throats for months, the prayers caught in our throats for months, one for shelter, one for first responders knocking on doors, one for the lost, one for fighters who drove past planes, one for the hills rimmed with a rolling brightness, for history to make us wise about lands that have always returned after fire, for time, for time, for the surprises tiptoeing in unannounced just weeks after the flames, one for rain, and the rise of some cups, biscuit fruits, tote flats and whispering bells, one for the plentiful, flaring open pebble upon ash, songbirds upon branches of charcoal, black bears upon berries of abundance, the fresh juices trickling down the corners of the mouth. The second poem is also inspired by many of the people I've been interviewing who have lost so much and gained so much strength since the fires, rejuvenation. Once we have looked away, once we have mourned and banished all smoldering thoughts about the tribe of blackened trees, replacing the known world for now, and another season. And the last long fingers of smoke have been ushered out by wind, a ticking begins. No one has seen them alive among such numbers. But the birds are neither lost nor passing through. They're simply linked tight to the new-born sense of ash and rain, to the prowess of white fruits, the riches concealed by God. So are the ways of ancestors who began their journeys as specks in the distance 50,000 years ago, riding the miles of smoky gold. One new arrivals looks bright with hope. He preems his dust and opal gloomage. Others tap as if knocking on doors. The answers have been provided by the ages. Long as genetic fibers coil in every cell, the living are awake. We, the living, are awake to the growth and perfusion soon to follow. We will grow. They will grow with the diligence of all known colors unfailing from the soil's chocolatey darkness. From the trees, re-greening comes spring from the blackness. I have one last short poem, Blue Oak, based on Pepplewood Reserve and scenes from Pepplewood, which was right in the heart of the Tubbs Fire. And most of Pepplewood burn. And so many people there are building from the knowledge that things are coming back on their own and will help. A meadow ends where all the perpendiculars of a leafy brown river throw themselves up towards blue. The fruits are olive and ochre. Here it is, the world, the utterly lovely, despite all the anguish, despite endless battles. Meanwhile, you have slipped away to yours. My phone is still agonized. I could call that. I could share the looping and fluttering of fly catchers. Grass is fresh with fob drip and shade. I could hold my phone up among the workrooms of bark and flown so you can hear that rushing. The liquid flowed, scooping minutes from the heart's rocky sloping terrain and moving on as only a river can or I could stand still and listen and listen. Thank you very much to the many poets with words on stage and with chalk out there. To the Bay Area media who are back with us on this anniversary, we want to say thank you for remembering us. And we hope that you will continue to check in on us because Sonoma County plans to be a prime example of what to do after a disaster strikes. We hope to do that. So thank you for being here. We stand here in Santa Rosa with our hearts on the anniversary also in Geyserville and in Kenwood and in Glen Ellen and in Sonoma and our neighbors in Napa County and Lake Counties and Mendocino Counties and Shasta Counties and the list seems to go on and get bigger every year, but we stand with all of you today. Chris, would you like to say a few final words before we introduce the last section of our program tonight? I'm gratified to see everybody here. And nobody needs to remind it be reminded by the will anyway that we've come a long ways that we have long ways to go. And we're going to be asked to dig deep and to keep providing and helping the people who need help and the people do need help. The outpouring has been historic, but we still have a ways to go. So I would encourage us all to stay in it because there are people who are in this for years and years to come. So initially we've done wonderfully, but we still the race is not over. And thank you for coming. And we would like to invite up the firefighters once again, what you see to my right is the amazing fireman's bow. And you are going to hear it a total of 44 times this evening. You'll hear it 24 times to begin with, to represent the number of lives we lost a year ago in Sonoma County. And then you will hear the additional bells for the 44 souls that were lost in the entire North Bay during the Firestone. That will be the closing of our ceremony tonight to our elected officials. Thank you for helping put all this together. And we encourage you to get back to work first thing tomorrow morning, because there is much to be done. And now if you would join me in honoring our beloved community members with the Santa Rosa firefighters. Godspeed to you and the rest of this amazing community. Good evening.