Workers Dress Down to Aid Fire Victims

Employees at a Chatsworth medical billing company are dressing down for the victims of the Malibu fire.

In an effort to lend their support to the people who have lost everything and encourage other businesses to join them, more than 150 employees of Synergistic Systems Inc. are paying $2 each for permission to dress casually for three days.

Wearing jeans, T-shirts and sneakers in place of business suits, dresses and pumps, the employees have already raised about $350 to buy food and clothing for fire victims--an amount the company’s directors have pledged to match.

The company will give the donations to the Salvation Army for Malibu fire victims.

Synergistic employees Robin Egusquiza and Jill Lebo, who run a company charity program called Helping Hands, came up with the idea to have employees dress casually and wear bright orange disaster badges to show their support for the people who lost their homes in the fires.

They said employee response has been overwhelming.

“It was really a companywide decision to give to the fire victims,” Egusquiza said. “People liked the idea of keeping the funds local.”