CALABASAS : Fund-Raising Mission for Bombing Victims

Calabasas businessman Bernie Uechtritz will never forget the outrage he felt as he watched televised reports of the Oklahoma City bombing. “My wife and I both cried,” he said. “It could have been us, it could have been our kids, it could have been our town.”

Instead of just grieving, though, he helped--and ended up raising more than $2,000.

He started watching Wednesday, the day of the blast, and by Friday, he said, he had seen enough. He vowed then and there to do something to aid the victims.

So he decided to hold a benefit, something to raise a lot of money fast. His 5-year-old daughter, Kelsi, was one of the first donors, he said. She offered up a five-gallon water bottle full of coins she had been saving.

“Kelsi watched throughout the week,” Uechtritz said. “She couldn’t understand it. She couldn’t conceive of how it could happen. She asked how she could help those people.”

The next day, Uechtritz said he parked his vintage, Chinese-made, World War II military motorcycle next to the local farmers’ market, asking people to throw money into the sidecar. They did. Over the weekend, he said, he parked it at various spots around town and took in more than $2,000.

“The people of Calabasas opened their hearts and opened their pocketbooks,” said Arlene Bernholtz, executive assistant at the Chamber of Commerce, which helped with the fund-raising. “They have warm, giving hearts.”

Uechtritz’s efforts were duplicated throughout the area. Students at Lindero Canyon Middle School in Agoura Hills on Friday presented a check for $3,066 to the American Red Cross for relief efforts.

Uechtritz, who is from Australia, said he knows what it is like to go without. “I’ve been on both ends of the stick.”