Ripon — as well as neighboring communities — has responded to a call to help those displaced by wildfires raging in the Redding area as well as near Yosemite National Park.

The effort organized by Ripon Police Chief Ed Ormonde brought countless donations of food, clothing, diapers, pillows and clothing to the collection point at the city hall parking lot on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Key volunteers that made the effort work included Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) and the Ripon Police Explorer cadets who helped unload donations from citizens.

The Assist International warehouse on Stockton Avenue was among those stepping forward delivering pallets of supplies to the parking lot collection site in front of the Ripon Police Department and City Hall.  

A city hall maintenance man, John Dias, drove his pickup truck on his break time over to the super market on Colony Road and told a clerk he wanted to buy all the cases of water he found stacked up against a wall in the store. He then delivered the 32 cases to the collection truck at city hall.  

A number of motorists drove into the collection site area and handed the workers cash that was being used to buy gift cards for fire victims.  

One Ceres mom and her two children, 10 and 8 drove up to Ripon Tuesday morning with donations after seeing a post about the need on social media. 

Two trailers had been filled as of Wednesday night.  One will be driven to the Redding area today and the other to the Yosemite National Park fire location on Friday.  

 To contact Glenn Kahl, email gkahl@mantecabulletin.com.