MOUNTAIN RANCH, CA (September 13, 2019) – The community of Mountain Ranch returned a $10,000 favor to San Andreas Community Covenant Church.
The town’s baseball field was destroyed during the massive Butte Fire in 2015 when the Fed-eral Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) used the field as its staging area. Heavy water trucks, temporary showers, and laundromat tore up the field.
FEMA said it wasn’t their responsibility to pay to restore the field, and Calaveras County couldn’t afford to do it. So the community raised $45,000 for the repairs. The church contribut-ed $10,000. Even though its own members had lost homes, the church wanted to contribute the funds to help build up the morale of the community.
Recently Mountain Ranch raised enough money to return the $10,000.
Phil Alberts, who guided the original construction of the fields and managed the community softball team for 25 years, told the Calaveras Enterprise, “We gave the $10,000 back to the church so that they can use it for some other community or individual that is facing a disaster,” said Phil Alberts said. “I think it’s a big accomplishment for a town the size of Mountain Ranch.”
Steve Airola, chair of the church leadership team, said the congregation never intended for the money to be returned, but they are happy to receive the funds so they can help more people.
