Mario Guia Flores, 8, was surprised to learn Wednesday that the recent Southern California fires burned out homes and caused hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate their neighborhoods.

To him, it seemed such a horrible thing couldn’t happen to anyone for real. But as the Boys & Girls Club member learned from staff that, yes, it was true, he paused a moment and put his chin down for a second, looking again at the picture he was drawing.

In it Guia Flores is helping a friend kick a soccer goal, something he hopes will bring a smile to other Boys & Girls Club members in the San Diego area.

It will be pasted onto a giant butcher paper tree that will be filled with other pictures of help and hope, part of a campaign of projects going on at the Napa Boys & Girls Club in a bid to show support for San Diego County Boys & Girls Club members affected by the fires.

Other projects include a videotaped poem recital, a poster of hopeful messages — “good luck,” “wish you luck,” “hope you guys are safe” — and what Boys & Girls Club teens plan will be a high-quality traveling mural overseen by a Napa Valley artist.

Charitable outpourings to fire victims have famously exceeded some of the needs, as when news reports revealed the line of donations at Qualcomm Stadium was longer than the line of people who requested them. In all, the fires in Los Angeles and San Diego counties burned 339,116 acres and 1,829 homes.

Newly-arrived Napa Boys & Girls Club Director of Operations Eric Dreikosen was there.

“The only thing more powerful than the level of devastation down there was the power of community,” he said.

That’s a lesson he’s hoping the art project teaches the kids of the Napa Boys & Girls Club. Dreikosen envisions a message that relays more support than sympathy.

“I want them to know  that other people are out there and caring about them ... not ‘Sorry this has happened to you,’ but, ‘You will overcome and we believe it,’” he said.

In the videotaped poem, a group of first-graders and their mentors belted out the lines loud enough so the video camera microphone could hear.

“We hope when you see this we cause a big smile,” the group said toward the end of the poem. “Knowing that we are thinking of you all the while. Whether near or far a family we are. We love you San Diego.”

Dreikosen hopes to send the poem and the paper projects down early next week, with the mural a longer term project set to move south early next year.

“I'm trying to pass along a notion that other club kids care about them,” he said.