Network of friends helps Tides graduate deal with wildfires at Westmont college

Kate Stuart helps with cleanup during Thanksgiving holiday

Matt Thomson

Special to the Gateway

Kate Stuart may have felt ready for her freshman year at Westmont College. But there’s no way she could have been prepared for what was to come.

Stuart was an academic and athletic star for the Tides before she graduated in 2008. In her four years as a cross country runner, the Gig Harbor girls won three consecutive Class 4A state championships and also had a second-place finish.

Stuart’s best individual effort at the state cross country course was when she placed 18th at Sun Willows Golf Course in Pasco in 19 minutes, 25 seconds.

Her best performances came in the distance track events. As a senior, she helped her team to a second-place finish by taking third in the 800 meters (2:16.09) and fifth in both the 800 (2:14.70) and 3,200 (10:43.82).

Soon afterward, she was awarded an athletic scholarship to attend Westmont, located in Santa Barbara, Calif.

And while she had a successful freshman year, there was more on her mind. One week before the Thanksgiving break, Westmont College became engulfed in flames as part of the Santa Barbara Tea Fire.

“It was kind of exciting,” Stuart said. “I’m not glad it happened, but it was just a huge bonding experience. Having the whole campus sitting in the gym looking outside and seeing nothing but flames was crazy.”

The gym was deemed the safest place on campus. The flames crept closer and closer. The smoke began to find its way into the gym.

Stuart said things became quite exciting.

“There was a lot of fear while we were in the gym, but for the most part, everybody was helping everybody else, and we knew that everyone was doing their best,” Stuart said.

She added that the hours spent in the gym — knowing exactly what was going on outside — showed her just what the Westmont community was made of.

It was the selflessness of the other students that struck her. Stuart said the students weren’t upset. They were simply looking out for each other in whatever ways they could.

When the flames were finally contained, the students were released.

While Stuart’s dorm room was spared, others weren’t as fortunate. Several campus buildings, including some dorm rooms, had burnt down.

Stuart’s cross country and track and field coach lost his home, which neighbored the Westmont campus.

Instead of leaving Santa Barbara and coming home to Gig Harbor for Thanksgiving, Stuart chose to stay with some of her friends and teammates and try to find ways to help.

“We just went back to campus to look through the ashes,” Stuart said. “We didn’t know what we could do. We didn’t even know where to start.”

Stuart and her friends got some boots, gloves and masks and began to sort through what was left of the burnt buildings, including her coach’s home.

They cleaned, scrubbed and sifted through ashes for jewelry and other valuables. They cleaned broken glass out of lawns and whatever they could find to try to ease the pain of those who had lost everything.

“Some of the girls wanted to babysit, but I wanted to get dirty,” Stuart said. “We’d come home at the end of the day just black.”

Classes eventually resumed and finals were taken. The Westmont community pushed on.

Spring semester came, which brought with it the track and field season. Stuart and her teammates began to prepare. Then, about one week prior to the end of the semester, Stuart and her teammates stood on the track and watched as more flames made their way over the mountains and toward the campus.

Despite thick smoke and ashes, the flames didn’t make it to the campus a second time. The school was evacuated, graduation ceremonies were moved, but the school was spared further damage.

Stuart didn’t let the fires dominate her memory. It was working with the people to reset order.

“I can’t wait to get back and see all the great people,” Stuart said about her upcoming sophomore season.

“I’ve made lifetime friends there. I love it here in Gig Harbor, but I almost didn’t want to come home this summer. I wanted to stay. My mom always calls and complains that I never talk to her anymore, but I’m always doing fun stuff with my friends there.”

Stuart loved her time at Gig Harbor High School. She also expressed great appreciation for Tides running coach Patty Ley.

“The atmosphere at Gig Harbor felt more competitive (than Westmont),” Stuart said. “But I realized he (Westmont Coach Russsell Smelley) wanted me to self-discover that competitiveness. I’m a competitive person, but I was used to being pushed more.

“Coach (Smelley) wants me to find that inspiration inside.”

As she prepares to head to Santa Barbara for her second year with the Warriors, Kate isn’t thinking about the fires. She’s excited for a more challenging academic load as she pursues a degree in pre-medicine.

She’s also looking forward to getting faster and helping her team qualify for the NAIA Cross Country National Championships.

But most of all, she looks forward to reuniting with her friends and the people at Westmont.

“I don’t want to lose my social life,” Stuart said. “We just do so many fun things. We’ll go out and play croquet on the lawn at 1 a.m., or have a bouncy ball war in the library. Just silly things.”

For Stuart, college isn’t about hunkering down in your room and studying. And it’s not just about running for hours each day.

Most of all, it wasn’t about the tragedy of a fire that destroyed portions of her campus and the homes of her friends and her coach.

It’s about the people with whom she gets to do those things.