Nearly a month ago, Jane Mick had her opening reception on one side of Main Street — in The Main. On Thursday, she had her work displayed on the other side of the street — during Hart & Main’s “Love on Main Street.”
As the community is recovering from the aftermath of the fire that destroyed The Main, which at the time housed many of Mick’s important art pieces, and businesses such as Care Tucker Style House and Newhall Refinery, the community is rallying together to raise money to support the businesses owners and employees.
Simultaneously, the final 2026 installment of the city of Santa Clarita’s Senses block parties took place on the block of the former businesses, showcasing Oktoberfest with a faint smell of burnt debris.
Yet, despite the drastic change of the block in the past four weeks, those impacted by the fire are hopeful and look forward to rebuilding, even mentally, in the future.
Those in attendance at “Love on Main Street” could participate in a silent auction and listen to live music by Rebel Heart. In addition, attendees could enjoy food made by Newhall Refinery, shop the Care Tucker boutique and observe Jane Mick’s works that were recently displayed at The Mosaic.
“When the fire happened, [owner Rob Younkin] wanted to try and support as many people as he could. We got Jane Mick, Care Tucker and Newhall Refinery and asked them if they wanted to be a part of it,” said event planner Tricia Maldonado. “We have a silent auction outside. We did ticket sales. All of it goes back to the employees of those businesses. We got a lot of different wineries and breweries to donate. Newhall Refinery took over the kitchen and they’re doing the food in the bar. We tried to get the community together.”
Selling around 230 tickets for $100 each, Maldonado and the rest of the team began thinking of ideas to help the businesses right away.
“Newhall is such a community that we want to keep it so positive. And even though it was so devastating what happened to the buildings, we want to make sure that the people in the community know how important it is to stay strong together. The amount of people that have bought tickets and the amount of people that wanted to donate — it’s just amazing that everyone wants to be involved,” Maldonado said.
Christine Muñoz, owner of Newhall Refinery, and her fiance Ralph Gonzalez, are optimistic for the future of the business.
“We’re super overwhelmed with gratitude and amazed at this awesome event. The vendors who helped us put on this event are super helpful and amazing. We’re just so happy to see so many people from the community come out and want to benefit all of us. We get to see a lot of our customers, so we’re just super excited,” Muñoz said. “Right now we’re just figuring out how to move forward. There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered for us, but we’re weighing options. We want to stay in Newhall, but we don’t know what that means or looks like yet. Once we know, we’ll start announcing and putting it out, especially to our customers.”
The physical rebuilding of the establishment will be hard at the moment, according to Muñoz, but the goal is to be back in Old Town Newhall.
“When the fire first happened, it was like the floors were being taken out from under us. Our livelihood — Ralph and I were there every day and our staff is pretty consistent, we’vehad them for so long. They’ve been with us all this time,” Muñoz said. “We want to stay in Newhall because it was born here, and it means something to the people here. It has become a part of the family. The staff became part of the family. The neighborhood — we love Newhall.”
Initially commuting for three months from Orange County to Santa Clarita in the buying stages, Muñoz and Gonzalez are going on four years of living in the city.
“We just want everyone to know that we’re super grateful and thankful for all the outreach and outpour and the fact that the community really kind of took us in their arms and showed us what it means to be kind of part of Santa Clarita. That’s amazing, and we’re really happy to be here. We want to stay here,” Muñoz said.
Prior to the live music, Jonny and Care Tucker thanked those in attendance and for the continuous community support since the fire.
“We own the store Care Tucker Style House. That was just down the street, and owned it for three years. We were super fortunate to meet so many of you. I see so many pieces of her clothing here tonight. So thank you for not just showing up and representing, but actually representing pieces from her line,” Jonny Tucker said. “I guess the greatest blessing I would say has been hearing from so many women about the experiences that they have and the joy that they had coming into our store. Our hope and our goal is to be back soon … but we’rehonestly extremely, extremely, extremely grateful for all of this, so thank you.”
“Thank you to all the small businesses, too. I look at all the silent auctions and I’m like, ‘Wow.’ You guys really showed up for us, and I’m so grateful. Thank you to Hart & Main for putting this on. It just means a lot to us. I do see a light in the darkest times, so thank you guys,” Care added.
As for Mick, she is finding some solace in her newfound sense of community fame.
“For the last few weeks, people actually kind of know who I am. It’s horrible to have to do it this way, but I guess it is a little icing on the cake. It was actually kind of nice that I was at the Mosaic before the fire, so it worked out that everyone came over and saw me. And during the week, people would come by and buy stuff, so it was really nice,” Mick said. “I am the type of person that moves forward. What are you going to do? My mom always used to say, ‘No crying over spilled milk.’ As an artist, you move forward all the time anyway. So I have to move forward.”
If anyone in the community is in search of new art, Mick is ready: “I’m here if you need some art.”
