ELK, Wash. – Valerie and Peter Woelk have volunteered at the North County Food Pantry for two years. When the Oregon Road Fire broke out, they, like many others, lost their home and knew they were needed back at work.
The couple said they only had twenty minutes to evacuate their home, but even in moments of panic, thinking of others was on their mind.
“The night we got evacuated, I grabbed all the soups off the shelf, the canning in the pantry and put them in a cooler and took it to the church, had them unload it, and started cooking for the fire department,” said Valerie.
Valerie cooked for first responders for hours the night they had to evacuate before returning to her home to find decades’ worth of memories gone. But her husband Peter says they are some of the lucky ones.
“We had a place to …