Many people in our region have been affected by the ongoing wildfires currently burning across much of western Oregon, and our hearts and prayers are with those that have lost their homes or family members.  As part of the regional response to the wildfires, Central Aid Agency has been deploying to support wildfire response efforts.  Our first deployment was to Silke Field in Springfield to assist with donations management.  The next day Central Aid Agency was requested by the Lane County Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) to deploy to help assist Lane County Government, St. Vincent De Paul, and United Way in setting up a new donations center at Four Corners in Eugene.  The following week Central Aid Agency was again requested to deploy security and emergency response personnel to provide support for the donations center.  It has been a busy couple of weeks, and will most likely continue to be as our region shifts from fighting and containing the fires, to long-term recovery.

The Central Aid Agency Board of Directors convened digitally to discuss how to move the organization forward in the age of COVID-19.  Their final determination was to put it out to a vote of the general membership, and did so soon after.  The members decided that rather than keep everything postponed until in-person operations can resume, meetings and training should instead be moved online to a digital format.  The June Sector Meeting was the first meeting to take place digitally, and paves the way for future meetings and training to occur as scheduled, but digitally.  It is our hope to begin in-person operations as soon as it is safe and prudent to do so, but in the meantime digital meetings will allow us to keep moving forward as an organization during these uncertain times.

After several months of work our new website is now live!  The new site features an updated look, more photos, and easier navigation around the site.  We are very excited to have this new site!