Deven Storz Memorial: Sandy Browne and family friends are spreading the word that there will be a memorial celebration of Devin Storz’ life, Sunday, Jan. 31, at 1p.m., in the Condor Room in the Pine Mountain Clubhouse (off of Mil Potrero Highway, across from the gas station).

There are times when words are useless. What happens then defines us and our community. On January 24 people of all ages on the mountain learned something about the power of sharing talent and the gifts of music to create hope that there may be a way to go forward in the face of tragedy.

The storms of January took a vibrant young life in an accident that is impossible to understand. Young Devin Storz, 21 was killed instantly Monday, Jan. 18 when a 90-foot pine tree was uprooted by storm winds and slammed into the house where he was sleeping.

Storz was a 2006 high school graduate who worked with the U.S. Forest Service to fight the Day fire. He was inside his parents’ home in the 1600 block of Freeman Drive in Pine Mountain. His bed was beneath the area where the tree hit around 9:30 a.m. Gusts of winds up to 80-miles-per-hour were clocked on the Grapevine that morning.

Storz’ father, Kip Storz (a carpenter and mountain resident for over 30 years) was also inside the home at the time of the accident. His mother was visiting family in New Jersey when the storm struck. The house was destroyed.

As word passed around the mountain, people began placing checks in collection jars around town, seeking ways to channel their need to try to help heal a situation that left all feeling heartbroken and helpless.

Memories of Devin Storz rolled into the newspaper. He was voted “Most Rock n’ Roll” and “Most Outspoken” in the 2006 Frazier Mountain High School yearbook.

Some recalled that Storz suffered burns in 2006 while fighting the Day fire with the USFS (a blaze that caused 85 percent of mountain residents to evacuate). Barbara Moritz-Stark wrote that Devin Storz was intelligent, creative and charismatic. Others wrote of his infectious good humor, his mischievous grin and his kindness.

Jeff Anderson, the lead in the films Clerks and Clerks II set up www.GiftforDevin.com where he told of meeting Devin at Madd Bailey’s Pub. Anderson is offering to sell autographed pages of his marked Clerks II working script to help raise funds to benefit the family.

On January 24, Sandy Browne and many others organized the Sunday Jam benefit at Pine Mountain’s clubhouse that became a five hour musical wake for Devin, filled with tears, embraces, humor and poetry as hundreds of young people and community members of all ages remembered his life together.

To help rebuild their home and lives, friends set up a Storz Family account at Antelope Valley Bank. Donation jars are placed around town. Donations can be sent to Storz Fund c/o Antelope Valley Bank P.O. Box 688, Frazier Park 93225. Make checks payable to Sandy Brown with "Storz Family fund" in the notation field.

This is part of the January 29, 2010 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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