SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Months after losing everything during the deadly Camp Fire in Butte County, a lifelong baseball fan is starting to rebuild his memorabilia collection thanks to a little help from the San Francisco Giants.
Sonoma native Josh Iverson graduated from Durham High School in 2006 and moved to Paradise with his wife and mother in 2016. He said he has been a Giants fan his entire life and had amassed a huge collection of memorabilia, some valuable and some sentimental — and all of it lost in the fire.
“There were ticket stubs and things I’ve had since I was a little kid, all the way to hats, jerseys, and jackets that I purchased at playoff games during recent world series runs,” Iverson told Patch. “I had a hat collection of probably 50-plus hats, at least six different Giants jerseys, bobble heads I’d received as giveaways at games.”
Iverson considered many of the items lost in the fire priceless, especially the ones given to him by his grandfather, he said. He had planned to someday hand down his collection to his son, he told Patch.
Iverson sent a letter to the Giants to let them know what had happened and the baseball team graciously sent him a care package to help him start his new collection. The package included a signed baseball, a jacket, hats and other orange-and-black swag. Grateful for the gesture, Iverson posted about the gifts on Twitter.
Iverson, who works as a call-center representative, said he idolized Jeff Kent growing up and is a fan of Buster Posey and Bruce Bochy.
Iverson and his wife, who is pregnant, plan to stay in the Chico area.
The Camp Fire began in Butte County on Nov. 8 and quickly spread across 240 square miles, killing at least 85 people and displaced thousands more. Most of Paradise was charred within 24 hours. Nearly 19,000 buildings, mostly homes, were destroyed. It was the nation’s deadliest and most destructive wildfire in a century.
Photos courtesy Josh Iverson
Click Here: geelong cats guernsey 2019