1/ST Things 1/ST: Pete Siberell on Donation Efforts at Santa Anita

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00:00Well, the smoke has cleared, so in this week's edition of First Things First, I did catch

00:04up with Santa Anita's Pete Sybaril to talk about all of the donation efforts going on

00:10at Santa Anita.

00:12So, Pete, we're in your office, and did you stay here with your wife?

00:23And two dogs.

00:24Wow.

00:25The first two nights we were here, I had to stick around by the track.

00:29And we hadn't really lined up anywhere to go, so this was the most easy accommodation

00:36we could get at the time.

00:38But we were here the first two nights, and then spent the other time in hotels.

00:41But my dogs loved running down the track in the middle of the night.

00:45They just loved it.

00:47So you stayed here.

00:48Thankfully, your house was OK.

00:51Other people, not so lucky.

00:53Can you talk about the efforts that Santa Anita has put forward, and what is going on

00:57in the parking lot?

00:58Because it's busy.

00:59It's very busy.

01:00Lots of moving parts, Zoe.

01:01Well, first off, we were making arrangements for Southern California Edison to restore

01:06power to their something like 400,000 homes in the area.

01:11So they needed a staging area, they call it a lay-down yard.

01:15We gave them the complete north lot, which is about a million square feet.

01:18They've since moved into another lot in the south.

01:21Suddenly, I get a call from the city of Pasadena.

01:23This seems so long ago.

01:25It was just Friday.

01:26The city of Pasadena calls me and says, we've got this group, we're kicking them out of

01:31the Rose Bowl because the National Guard's coming in, and we're using it as an incident

01:34command center.

01:35They wanted a small parcel for a small donation center.

01:41And I met the guy, the organizer, his name's Alan Gee.

01:44He was being followed by 75 cars and trucks right behind him.

01:48It was like a wagon train.

01:50And they had nowhere to go.

01:51The only good part about canceling racing last weekend was that we could give them more

01:55space.

01:56And they took up the entire south lot there, 750,000 square feet.

02:01So we helped them kind of streamline things.

02:02We gave them bike rail, we gave them dumpsters, we gave them tables, chairs, portable lights.

02:08And we managed to kind of, it was very organic.

02:11And it's just, you've seen the coverage in the news, PBS and CNN and New York Times.

02:17It's just exploded.

02:19How many people do you think have been through Santa Anita?

02:21God, I think Saturday alone was like 100,000 people.

02:24Wow.

02:25It's even bigger.

02:27So easily, you know, 300,000, 400,000 people.

02:30We're going to continue this through Friday.

02:33Well done.

02:34You look like you need a nap.

02:35I need, yeah, coffee helps.

02:37Thanks so much, Pete.

02:40Thank you, Zoe.

02:45Thanks so much to Pete Syberl.

02:46Do want to remind you that racing does continue this Thursday at Santa Anita.

02:51We will have a Thursday through holiday Monday racing.

02:55So check the website for post times.

02:57I do believe on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, we will have early post times of 1130 AM.

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