Nancy Kanter, owner of Sparkling Vine Design in Newbury Park, wears one of the three pendants in her \u201cLove for California\u201d collection.\u00a0(Photo: ALICIA DOYLE\/SPECIAL TO THE STR)<\/p><\/div>\n
At 3 a.m. Nov. 9, a restless Nancy Kanter looked out the windows of her Newbury Park home to see if she was safe. Just a few miles away, the Woolsey Fire on one side and the Hill Fire on the other were\u00a0forcing many residents to evacuate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t see anything,\u201d Kanter recalled. \u201cI was about to go back to sleep and the phone rings. And I\u2019m like, \u2018It\u2019s never good when somebody calls at 3 a.m.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The call was from one of her sisters, who lives about five minutes away. She said she’d been evacuated, but even worse, her mother-in-law had, too.<\/p>\n
The mother-in-law’s house was only a block away.<\/p>\n
Kanter and her boyfriend\u00a0scrambled to grab anything and everything that was important.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re getting our dog … photos, my jewelry, my original artwork and things that cannot be replaced, like my grandma\u2019s painting,\u201d Kanter said.<\/p>\n
Nancy Kanter, owner of Sparkling Vine Design in Newbury Park, is a jewelry designer who created a collection with 100 percent of profits going to victims of the shooting at Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks and fire victims.\u00a0(Photo: ALICIA DOYLE\/SPECIAL TO THE STAR)<\/p><\/div>\n
Her\u00a0other sister, who was out of town, got in touch with the couple and invited them to stay at her place in Oxnard.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd fortunately they had just opened the freeway up, because the 101 was closed at the Conejo Grade because of the Hill Fire,\u201d Kanter said. \u201cIt was nice to have a safe, comfortable place to go, but it was just scary. I\u2019ve never been evacuated before.\u201d<\/p>\n
After three nights away from home, Kanter returned. Grateful that\u00a0she and her home were safe \u2014 and still overwhelmed by the mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill the day before the fires broke out \u2014\u00a0she decided to try to help others who weren\u2019t as fortunate.<\/p>\n
But how?<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I\u2019m a jewelry designer and an artist, maybe I can create something,\u201d she recalled thinking at the time.<\/p>\n
And so the owner of Sparkling Vine Design handcrafted jewelry sat down and got busy.<\/p>\n
\n
She designed three pendants that she calls her \u201cLove for California\u201d collection, and she decided to give 100 percent of the profits to organizations helping those impacted by the recent tragic events.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\nThe \u201cLove for California\u201d collection consists of three pendants, from left: one with a heart in Northern California where the Camp Fire destroyed the small town of Paradise, one featuring a city of Thousand Oaks tree with a heart in the center and one depicting the state of California with a heart in the location of the Woolsey and Hill Fires. This collection was created by Nancy Kanter, owner of Sparkling Vine Design in Newbury Park, and 100 percent of profits go to victims of the shooting at Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks and fire victims.\u00a0(Photo: ALICIA DOYLE\/SPECIAL TO THE STAR)<\/p><\/div>\n
The 1-inch by 1-inch pendants are made of glass and hang from an 18-inch oxidized metal chain. One pendant features a city of Thousand Oaks\u00a0iconic oak tree with a heart in the center. One depicts the state of California with a heart in the location of the Woolsey and Hill fires, and the third shows a heart in Northern California, where the Camp Fire destroyed the small town of Paradise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just wanted to do something,\u201d Kanter said. \u201cI just felt so helpless because this is my hometown and I love this area. I wanted to do something within my power that was positive.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pendants cost $29, plus tax and shipping.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve raised about $1,500 so far in profits,\u201d she said. \u201cOutside of my expenses, I\u2019m donating the rest. I know it\u2019s not a lot, but hopefully it relieves a little stress if they have a little extra money. It\u2019s the least I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pendants can be purchased online at\u00a0www.sparklingvinedesign.com<\/a>.<\/p>\nProfits from the sales of the Thousand Oaks pendant will go to a fund run by the Unrestricted Charitable Foundation of the Rotary Club of Westlake Village. Profits from sales of the Southern California pendant will go to the Ventura County Community Foundation. Profits from sales of the Northern California pendant will go to the North Valley Community Foundation in Chico.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wear necklaces close to our hearts, so I thought it would be a touching way to both honor our little town and state while also giving back,\u201d Kanter said. \u201cI\u2019m also heartbroken for what my hometown has gone through in such a short period of time. I realize it\u2019s just a small gesture, but I wanted to do what I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-coverage"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vccf.org\/it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Nancy](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2018\/12\/11\/PVCS\/0dfd8bc8-1070-4251-a7d9-a5867cd1ff67-Nancy_wearing_necklace.jpg?width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp\")
![\"Nancy](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2018\/12\/11\/PVCS\/175cc650-f9a8-4606-931f-a0e1f0241660-Nancy_holds_charm_in_hand.jpg?width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp\")