INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A local bookstore and advocacy group are joining forces to make an impact.

The Indianapolis Liberation Center is hosting a pop-up event at Tomorrow Bookstore on Massachusetts Avenue Saturday to raise awareness and funds for vital community efforts.

This event is about more than selling merchandise. It’s about bringing people together to support marginalized communities and create real change in Indianapolis.

Visitors at Saturday’s event on Mass Ave can browse merchandise designed to inspire and inform people about LGBTQ+ liberation, women’s rights, and other social justice issues.

“We’re going to be coming in and we’re going to have a table set up where we’ll do volunteer intakes, sell some of our books, shirts, posters, and things like that, and do some of the outreach with the community to talk about getting involved and volunteering at the center,” said Destiny Glover, general coordinator at the Indianapolis Liberation Center.

It aims to be a safe space for participants to sign up for any services they may need from non-profit community partners such as IOC Watch, a prison re-entry group, Arte Mexicano en Indiana, an art gallery that highlights marginalized artists, and Hope Packages, that provides food for struggling communities in Indiana.

“We’re just kind of helping them make sure they’re getting their needs met,” Glover said. “Healthcare, visitation, anything that they may need from inside and outside prison. And also helping that lower class that’s struggling with homelessness.”

As Glover sees it, the event is a great example of how community partnerships can fuel meaningful activism.

“A lot of the time we’ve noticed that while there are a lot of people fighting individual fights and pockets of struggle,” Glover said. “Oftentimes, when we come together and connect whatever the commonalities are of the struggles, we have a lot more power to get things done, and we can really build a stronger community to fight with.”

All of the proceeds from the sales will go toward funding the Indianapolis Liberation Center.

“Just making sure that we have the resources and things like that to put on and really help the community, and keep the lights on here,” Glover said.

Saturday’s event is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – As deadly wildfires tear through southern California, we’re getting a first-hand account from some Northeast Ohio natives caught right in the inferno.

Kaylie Harden of Cleveland can see the gigantic flames and smoke from her balcony. She lives in an apartment on the Hollywood borderneighborhoods and has a suitcase packed just in case she’s forced to evacuate like thousands of others, “This is so devastating because a large portion of what’s been burned is neighborhoods and communities. When you get an evacuation order, you have to look around your home and decide what things don’t matter and which ones really do. It’s a tough position for anyone to be in. Unfortunately, a lot of people have had to make those choices this weekend — lost everything that was left behind.”

Harden tells 19 News at one point the massive flames were spreading towards her apartment, “It definitely was growing down towards my street. Thankfully it seems like they got a good handle on restraining the part of the fire that was coming down the hill in my neighborhood’s direction.”

The Cleveland native says it’s frightening for residents not to know if the city officials have everything under control.

But most people are using several apps for the latest updates on efforts to control the fire, information on where you can go during an evacuation, and even information on animal shelters willing to foster pets during the crisis.

But she feels it’s not just the massive wildfires creating concern, but smaller fires that keep popping up and may get few resources because firefighters are working to save homes and lives that could be impacted by the larger wildfires. “There’s been fires all over the city and the scary thing is that the winds are so high that they’re able to carry the embers for a mile — which is causing little fires everywhere.”is

Mitch Pannito of Mayfield Heights is also currently in California near Encino and Studio City and says he has not been evacuated at this point even though he can see the fires from his apartment and his job.

He’s also concerned about the pop-up fires because they can quickly spread out of control, and firefighters are working overtime to try and control the much larger fires, “They’ve been closer, a lot closer relatively than these other ones are and that’s the most nerve-racking because you just never really know.”

Pannitto makes it clear he’s extremely thankful for the firefighters risking their own lives to try and protect others’ lives and property. But he says it’s heartbreaking that people have to evacuate and leave so much behind,

“It’s devastating. It’s really sad to see families and generations of homes that people are losing.”

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