If you’ve ever stepped foot into The Paper Rabbit in Montrose, then you know it’s pretty in pink inside.
But this holiday season, the workers are also showing off their hearts of gold.
“They are amazing. The girls are so creative, they’re so talented,” said Anneke Greco, a longtime customer. “They put so much effort into each and every ornament and it really shows.”
The store is busy decorating 220 custom ornaments for the students and staff of St. Mark’s School in Altadena. The school’s campus was destroyed in the Eaton Fire.
Many of the students and staff lost their homes, too.
“We were pulling out the ornaments to start decorating the Christmas tree when we saw the St Mark’s 2019 ornament,” said Stephen Sachs, whose kids went to St. Mark’s. “We thought to ourselves, my wife particularly said, you know, ‘For all those that lost, maybe we can find a way to bring a little bit of Christmas back.’”
The Sachs reached out to The Paper Rabbit with an idea: If they donate the ornaments, could the store donate the time and effort to decorate 220 ornaments for students and staff at St. Mark’s?
“We thought, well, let’s see if we can get everybody in the community and the staff an ornament to commemorate this year,” Sachs explained, “to begin a small step towards building back.”
The Paper Rabbit agreed.
Owner Danielle Smith said many of her customers were affected by the Eaton Fire.
“Of course we said yes. I wanted to do it and donate our time toward that,” Smith said. “It’s just such a nice thing to do for people who have lost their homes or been displaced in the fires.”
Several of Smith’s employees are crafting each gold ornament by hand, decorating them with the year 2025 and the school’s new mantra: “Forward Together.”
“I think that is just such a nice thing for the families to go forward and not look back on what happened, but to go forward and put beautiful things on their tree again,” Smith said. “It will be nostalgic for them.”
For many in the area and surrounding communities, The Paper Rabbit has long been a place where people stop by to order custom gifts for loved ones.
This holiday season, each ornament may be gold, but it’s the work that goes into each one that makes them shine.
“That’s what makes them beautiful and that’s what makes them unique,” Sachs said. “There are families that lost everything. You know, their houses are gone, and this is a small step toward that rebuild.”
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