A California neighborhood has rallied round one among its native sports activities legends after he misplaced all the things to the Los Angeles-area wildfires.
A GoFundMe marketing campaign arrange by his son has already raised greater than $720,000 for Walt Butler, 83, whose Altadena home was consumed by flames Wednesday within the Eaton hearth.
“I’m nonetheless making an attempt to evaluate what actually occurred,” Butler advised The Submit.
“I’m not upset about it, as a result of I’m making an attempt to course of it, however I’ll get well. I’ve three daughters and a son,” former Stanford College soccer cornerback Treyjohn Butler, “and I helped all of them their lives. Now, they’re actually stepping it up large time to care for the Huge Man.”
The previous observe and area nice, nicknamed “The Jet,” excelled in soccer and observe at Pasadena Excessive Faculty.
He nonetheless holds a California Interscholastic Federation file within the 120-yard excessive hurdles.
Whereas at Pasadena Metropolis School, Walt ended up changing into the State Junior School Champion within the 120-yard hurdles.
This 12 months, he can be inducted into the Pasadena Sports activities Corridor of Fame.
He has additionally owned and operated Walter Butler Footwear in Pasadena since 1979.
“It’s an awesome expertise,” Butler mentioned.
“I’m a kind of dumb athletes who thinks he can do all the things. If you happen to get hit within the intestine, you simply suck it up. Properly, I’m sucking it up and standing tall. I’ll win the race.”
Butler advised The Submit he had a imaginative and prescient every week earlier than the hearth that one thing horrible was about to happen.
“I went outdoors Tuesday, and I regarded up and the moon was crimson,” he mentioned.
“I imply it was crimson crimson. It was identical to an enormous ball of fireplace within the sky. I advised my girlfriend, ‘The moon is crimson,’ as a result of I advised her every week earlier than that one thing severe was going to occur quickly. She dismissed it; I all the time have these visions.”
He may inform the hearth was raging on the opposite aspect of the mountains close to his dwelling. In brief order, the flames had “jumped over the mountain, like a shot put.”
The wind was so intense, he mentioned, “it was shaking the home.”
So, Butler and his girlfriend, Marilyn Meyers, 70, “left all the things behind, hopped within the automobile and left. We parked in a close-by lot and slept. I really received a superb night time’s sleep.”
Butler was in a position to go to his property Wednesday night.
“All the things was gone,” he mentioned.
“Like gone, gone, gone. I had a brand new Corvette Stingray and a few outdated traditional vehicles that have been beat up. The Corvette was gone. It didn’t exist, man. And I’m saying to myself, ‘Is that this actual? It could’t be, however I assume it’s.’”
Butler, who opened Walt Butler Footwear in Pasadena in 1979, mentioned he’s not blown away by the help he’s obtained.
A neighborhood he’s served his complete life, he mentioned, is returning the favor.
“I do know I’ll overcome [losing everything],” he mentioned.
“By this time subsequent month, I’m gonna have my Corvette again.”
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