In Memory of Julia

Julia Cukier Siegler was struck and killed on February 26, 2010, while crossing the street to board her school bus at the corner of Sunset and Cliffwood in Los Angeles. That school bus stop and many like it are now gone. A community consumed by grief and confusion rallied behind a deeply meaningful Slow Down For Julia street safety campaign, launched by schoolmates Jake Feiler, Eli Kogan and Max Thoeny to raise funds to support roadway improvements, code enforcement, education programs and legislative action.

Slow Down For Julia bracelets and ubiquitous purple shoelaces offered a poignant call to action to live life in a way that appreciates its fleeting nature. The campaign then continued with two electronic speed signs that were installed on Sunset Blvd., using monies raised at the Bar Mitzvah of neighbor, Charlie Horowitz. “Safety on Sunset” banners soon followed, which hung from utility poles from Pacific Coast Highway all the way to the 405 in a program developed with LA City, Brentwood and Pacific Palisades Community Councils.

Most importantly, Julia’s corner stands as a beacon for the light in her heart that is now carried on in ours. Her inner beauty and creative spirit remain luminous in her remarkable works of art and powerful dance performances. View Dance Performance.

Your contribution to CCF’s “In Memory of Julia” fund will be distributed to institutions that support street safety initiatives, as well as the arts education and performing arts programs that defined Julia’s brief, yet everlasting, existence.

Look at the photos below to learn about Julia, who she was….and still is…for so many of us.

See the Facebook group created in Julia’s memory.

To make a secure, tax-deductible donation online, please click here. You may also make a contribution by sending a check to:

California Community Foundation
717 W Temple St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Please make your check payable to the California Community Foundation and put in the memo line: In Memory of Julia

Read various articles from former County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky’s office, the Los Angeles Times, LA Magazine and more, in the links that follow.

• Why we all need to slow down for Julia, County Supervisor’s office
• A mother turns grief into action on bus-stop safety, Los Angeles Times
• Sunset Banners Focus on Distractions and Speed, Palisadian-Post
• City Installs New Speed Signs to Slow Drivers on Sunset, Patch
• Project in memory of young artist benefits many Pomona students, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
• Where The Sidewalk Ends, Los Angeles Magazine
• 100 rainbow ‘halos’ on Los Angeles street corners will honor people killed in car crashes, Los Angeles Times

* If images do not appear on mobile device, please place two fingers on the glass & pinch together.

Contributions to the California Community Foundation represent irrevocable gifts subject to the legal and fiduciary control of the foundation’s board of directors. This charge will appear on your credit card statement as a payment to “Calif Comm Fdn – CCF”. In addition, California Community Foundation incurs a third-party administrative fee of 2.7 percent for credit card contributions. The foundation will charge the fee directly to the individual fund.