Though national TV news crews and volunteer firefighters may have moved on to other crises, the trauma and devastation caused by wildfires that swept through Los Angeles in early January 2025 are still very present for residents there, including longtime Hallmark star Nikki DeLoach.
On January 27, the Georgia native penned a powerful social media post about what a “heartbreakingly brutal” month it’s been for her adopted hometown, but also reflected on the “collective goodness” she’s witnessed and been part of during such a hard time.
It’s no surprise that DeLoach has been involved in relief efforts, given her penchant for helping others. In December, she told EntertainmentNOW that despite her occupation as an actress, she feels like “being of service in the world” is her true calling.
After thanking her followers for their “outpouring of love and prayers,” DeLoach wrote in her latest post that “witnessing the people of our city organize and mobilize to help as many people as possible, has been one of the most inspiring acts of collective goodness I’ve sever seen.”
Nikki DeLoach Shares Photos of Her Boys Delivering Teddy Bears for Displaced Families
“This month has been brutal,” DeLoach wrote in her January 27 post. “And it’s not over yet. So many of us are feeling disappointment, anger, grief, fear and overwhelm, as we figure out how to move forward inside so much hard.”
To accompany the photos she shared on social media, DeLoach shared some of the most inspiring and heartbreaking moments she’s witnessed in L.A. since the wildfires broke out on January 7.
“As I look at these pictures and I recall so many being of service, I am also reminded of the how,” she wrote, and listed many of the ways she’d witnessed kindness, including from her own sons — William, 11, and Bennett, 7, whom she shares with husband Ryan Goodell.
“I think about my kids making heart shaped notes of love and encouragement, and attaching them to bear stuffies,” DeLoach wrote, referencing some of the photos she shared of them delivering teddy bears for kids who’d lost theirs. “A mother at the donation center picked up a bear for her daughter. They had lost everything. She read the card and was moved to tears.”
DeLoach shared other examples of strangers helping strangers, from teens who organized a donation drive at her kids’ school to the firefighters she tearfully hugged “as we attempted to express our gratitude.”
Noting how so many individuals have made a collective difference, the “Curious Caterer” star wrote, “We are the how. We keep going towards the need. One person, one family, one community, at a time.”
“Stay strong, LA,” DeLoach wrote in her last paragraph. “Stay strong, everyone. We have a lot of work ahead, but we will get through it all… together. I love you. ❤️🙏🏼”
Many of DeLoach’s L.A.-based Hallmark colleagues liked and commented on her post, including Heather Hemmens, Melissa Peterman, and John Brotherton, who’s been heavily involved in relief efforts through Reach Out WorldWide.
Nikki DeLoach Says Helping Others is ‘My Heart & My Passion’

DeLoach, who’s starred in more than 20 Hallmark movies since 2015’s “Christmas Land” with Luke Macfarlane, has long championed nonprofit organizations close to her heart, from the Alzheimer’s Association to Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, where she serves as president of the Foundation Board of Trustees.
“While I have the best job in the world as an actor, writer, producer, my heart and my passion is being of service in the world,” DeLoach told EntertainmentNOW in late 2024. “That’s the thing that gets me out of bed in the morning. It’s the thing that that keeps me going.”
DeLoach continued, “It’s the thing that reinvigorates my hope on those really, really hard days where you feel like it’s really hard to find the light, or it’s really hard to find hope, to access that.”
As for getting her kids involved in giving back, DeLoach said it’s what she learned to do growing up and what she hopes to instill in her sons.
“I’ve been volunteering and doing service work since I was really young” DeLoach explained. “It’s something that I’ve always believed in and that I’ve always felt was really important. We’re given this gift of being a human being on this earth, right? And I don’t take it for granted, not one day of my life.”
“I really, truly believe it’s not just something that we are supposed to do,” DeLoach told EntertainmentNOW, noting that she’s always been able to lean on others in challenging times, “but that it is a way of just saying thank you to the world.”
DeLoach’s “True Justice” co-star Benjamin Ayres’ Romance University initiative is currently raising money for charities aiding displaced families in Los Angeles, receiving help from Brotherton to guide funds. Fans can purchase a $50 special-edition t-shirt, with 100% of proceeds going to charity, or they can make a donation amount of their choice through the organization.
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Hallmark’s Nikki DeLoach Shares Her Gratitude Amid ‘Heartbreakingly Brutal’ Month