During the chaotic days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Elizabethram, a transitional kindergarten teacher, was despaired.
She saw a distracted face as she stared across the virtual gap at students studying at home.
So she provided comfort.
Lamb wore a set of Minnie Mouse ears. Four-year-old students who may struggle with 2+2 or write their names can focus on Mickey Mouse.
“They got engaged in curiosity and thrill,” Lamb said. “And they were ready to learn.”
Lamb became synonymous with ears and was called “Disney Teacher” on campus. She collected and stored more than 30 pairs in the classroom. Some purchased to mark individual milestones, including completing her 200th half marathon. Others were talented by students.
On January 7th, they were all incinerated along with most of the Pallisard Charter Elementary Schools by the Pallisard fire.
When the flames get bored on her campus, Ram first tries to save a few pairs of ears, but she eventually avoids them and some freeze in fear when they evacuate the school.
The historic fire killed at least 12 Pacific Pallisad residents, burning 23,448 acres and destroying more than 6,800 structures.
Palisade Charter primary school students, teachers and staff have moved to Brentwood Science Magnet.
In addition to the structure, the fire also took small things like Minnie’s ears and memories they evoked.
“That’s why we can be twins.”
There was a pair of Little Mermaids. In the meantime there were two purple shells with turquoise bows. They were talented by one of the former students at Lamb who bought them during their family’s summer trip to the Disneysea theme park in Tokyo.
“These were special because she bought a set of ears that matched her, so we were able to be twins,” Lamb said.
A few years ago, parents bought a traditional black ear set as a Christmas present for lamb. Parents handed out a white marker to their daughter, a student in Lamb’s class.
The child writes in his ears: “Mr. Ram, I love you.”
The teacher wore a headpiece for years. The student occasionally leapt into her class to find out how her handwriting changed rather than her feelings.
Lamb “smelts the magic of Disney” in classrooms, often wearing Minnie’s ears as she walks through the hall, said Juliet Herman, Charter Principal of Parisades.
“She’s always happy and patient, like a Disney character,” Herman said. “Students and parents feel like they’re in the second home in her classroom.”
Palisade Charter teacher Elizabeth Ram is examining Disney collections in her temporary classroom.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Herman said it was clear that Pallisard Charter had returned to Brentwood’s in-person instruction on January 13th.
That morning, 17 of Lam’s 19 students were present.
“It speaks volume to the trust that parents have with her,” the principal said.
Find her, find her ears
In Lamb’s case, friendship, success and milestones are measured in Minnie’s ears.
She cherished the set she purchased after the Disney Halloween Half Marathon was completed last fall.
They were a set of black vinyl ears, but she and her son waited seven hours for California Adventure Designers to customize and dry before they could be worn.
Employees wrote “Rundisney Mom” in one ear and “200th Half Marathon” in the other ear. Three Disney balloons were painted to represent the family along with Disney fireworks.
Evan Lamb, aiming to study medicine at UC Irvine, often acts as an arbiter of his mother’s Disney ear style.
An entertaining advice for a 17-year-old: “Wear something that doesn’t look bad.”
The duo visit Disneyland almost every Saturday and arrive at the park around noon for lunch at their favourite restaurants, including Disney’s Grand California Hotel Hearthstone Lounge and Pixar Pier’s Lamplight Lounge.
Lamb became a Disney fan at the age of five, and she and her mother moved from New Hampshire to Santa Barbara to live with her grandmother. The trio visited Disneyland every year. Cinderella was Rum’s favorite character.
However, she said she hadn’t thought about purchasing an annual pass until her son was born.
“It’s an experience I want to share,” Lamb said.
When Evan was together with his mother in the park, she bought what appeared to be a harmless accessory.
From Lamb’s Disney ears she had at school, they were the only pair to survive the fire. They happened to be on her head on January 7th.
“My kids were used to seeing my ears during Covid,” she said, so they were hoping to see them when they returned to campus. “Since then, my students know that they can find Mrs. Lamb with her ears.”
The Charter School of Pallisard Elementary School, which was hit by the Pacific Pallisard fire on January 8th, 2025.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
Drop your ears and grab your hands
On January 6th, Lamb and Palisade charters returned to instruction after a three-week winter break. She brought over 30 mouse ear bags to her class. Individual students choose which sets will be worn each week. Some were new to them.
The next day, the wind was fierce, and Lamb, her students, and her teaching assistant spent their breaks and lunch inside.
Investigators believe the Palisade fire lit around 10:30am on January 7th. The flame spreads rapidly. By noon, the area west of Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Merrimack Road had evacuated. The fire consumed 772 acres by 2:11pm and eventually torched Topanga Canyon State Park. By 6:17pm it was an unstoppable force and devoured about 3,000 acres.
At the same time, the Eton Fire in Altadena began, eventually killing 18 people, burning 14,021 acres, destroying more than 9,400 structures around Altadena and Pasadena.
Around the 11th that morning, at the Paris Des Charter, the flames were approaching and my parents were told that the school was evacuated.
Of the 18 students in Lamb’s class that day, 14 were greeted by noon, and the bus arrived and whipped everyone else.
Staying in class with the last four students, Lam threw a laptop, lunch, some ears under his arm, and opened the door intended to lead the child to the bus. But they remain paralyzed with fear, and the flames provide the brightest burst of light against a smoky background as if it were “paint black.”
“I have Little. They were four years old and never left the classroom door,” Lamb said. “So I was starving, so except for my lunch, I put everything down, but I grabbed the hands of the four kids.”
Within 20 minutes they were kicked out of campus, but never saw it again. My ears were burning.
The next morning, Lamb received words of destruction of the school and immediate cancellation of classes. She knew she would eventually resume her education, but everything in her classroom — personal belongings, educational tools, supplies — was gone.
A Colorado friend persuaded Lamb to set up an Amazon wish list. It was full of pencils, glue, scissors, paper and more, something that I asked for modest questions. However, these materials only meet basic needs.
When she saw the burnt-out school images painted on social media, she worried about her students’ mental well-being.
Ram was especially struck in one set in the photo. One of her favorite Disney influencers, Rosie Keiser, posted an image on her Instagram feed containing photos of the melted playset.
“When I saw that, I was like, ‘That’s my school,'” Lamb said. “The structure of that play is where the kids play. That was my classroom.”
Lamb reached out to Kayser, an advocate for the disabled known as Gothic Rosie. Northridge residents with multiple sclerosis have challenged Disney’s recent changes to stricter standards for disability access passes.
Please lend me your ears
Like Rum, Kayser is known for his ears.
Keizer is the easiest to discover of the approximately 47,000 Disneyland visitors every day, looking for custom-made black and purple maleficent horns based on the iconic Sleeping Beauty villain. She found the horn in 2016 at Walgreens and glued the hot topic bow hot in the center.
55-year-old Disney fan Rosie Kaiser shows a portrait in the skeleton lio of her Northridge home. Keizer helped Mickey Ear for Elizabeth Lam’s crowdfund exchange.
(Brian van der Bragg/Los Angeles Times)
Lamb, whose mother died of complications related to multiple sclerosis five years ago, found a kinship in Caser.
They spoke every day immediately after the flames.
“She was distraught,” Kaiser said. “She said, ‘How about I become a Disney teacher without Disney’s stuff?’
Shortly after the initial conversation, Keizer asked thousands of Facebook followers if it would help exchange missing ears.
“Disney fans are extraordinary hoarding, and I thought to myself, I have a lot of ears I’ve bought over the years,” Kaiser said. “I gave her some and got to see what other people think.”
According to Keizer, fans responded by donating ears from their personal mountains and storage, including Ghost Mansion, Star Wars, Main Street Electric Parade, and Minnie Mouse.
She collected them by mail and meeting fans at Disneyland.
On January 26th, Keizer delivered about 30 ears to Lam in the lobby of a Grand California hotel.
For Lam, kindness provided moments of joy in the sea of sorrow.
“She had buried three bags full of Disney ears, making me feel grateful and loved,” Lamb said. “January was a really tough month.”
Fairy Gothmother
Fans’ reactions sparked charity impulses at Keizer.
A few days before she dropped off her hat, she founded the fairy gothmother project. The crowdsourcing venture aims to find victims of the Palisade flames, who have lost Disney Memento.
Applicants for the Fairy Goth Mosaic Project are asking to replace their ears, hats, spirit jerseys and lounge fly backpacks.
Keizer and her army responded with Mickey Magician’s mini backpack, pink spirit jersey, Mickey band hat, Christmas spirit jersey and matching Mickey and Minnie ears on February 8, Haunted Mansion Crow on February 26, and a pair of Remy Keychain and Anaheim Ducks on March 6.
“The people affected by LA Fires have lost everything,” Keizer said. “Giving them a part of magic, part of our magic is probably the most meaningful and special thing we can do in a Disney storehouse.”
Mickey Mouse Evacuation Center
About a week later, Lamb received another cargo from Caser, including large Mickey and Minnie cutouts, Mickey Door Decorations and Disney Border Decorations, which were crowdfunded via the Fairy Gos Moser Project.
They are now adorning her temporary classroom with a Brentwood Science Magnet bungalow.
In some respects, Lamb’s classroom has become an oasis for her group, four and five, who have been hurt by fire and destruction. It is the slimmest and happiest place on the planet, with Disney ornaments and stickers scattered between shapes, colors and numbers.
When students struggle to explain the weekend or draw pictures of their pets, Mickey immediately acts as an alternative.
“When they can’t fully explain what they feel or think, they draw Mickey and Minnie,” Lamb said on a recent morning. “They can always be involved with them.”
