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By Miriam Raftery
After high winds on April 8 ripped their trailer home off its foundation west of Jacumba in Bankhead Springs, Dewey St. Julien and Virginia Hogan found themselves homeless. They lived in their truck and later, a motel with help from Red Cross. Now they are on a list hoping to receive a home from Habitat for Humanity.
“They asked how they could repay what blessings have come their way,” said Lorrie Ostrander, who has been assisting the young coupe. So tonight, April 18, Julien and Hogan have organized a spaghetti dinner to benefit Julie Atherton, a Mountain Empire Health employee with breast cancer.
The dinner will be held at the Mountain Empire Community Center, 976 Sheridan Road in Campo. Suggested donation is $5 for adults and $3 for children. A silent auction will also be held.
St. Julien, who is from San Diego, served for six years in the military. Hogan is from North Carolina. They awoke during the night of Aril 8 to find their trailer walls gone and a wall collapsed on their truck. Red Cross notified the Buddhist Tzu Chi Foundation, which sent Ostrander to assist the couple.
“Virginia told us they had purchased the trailer and moved in the area to save money so that they could get married and then buy a house,” said Ostrander. While visiting the site of what remained of the home, she heard the winds kick up and “What hadn’t blown down started to take flight.”
Moved by the outpouring of community support, the couple now asks the public to help Atherton in a “domino effect” of caring, said Ostrander. “Wonderful, sweet couple.”
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