By re-creating keys to buildings lost in the Los Angeles wildfires as fine jewelry, Future Fortune founder Jessica Olds hopes to help as places and people she loves recover from last month’s disaster.
Future Fortune will donate all profits from its Past-Present-Future Key custom pendants to rebuilding programs, with a special emphasis on schools. “I needed a way to give back to the community,” Olds says. “This is my purpose right now, and this is what I need to do.”
Olds has seen many friends struggling after the fires, and she knows jewelry is a way to preserve memories of what they lost. Through Future Fortune’s Past-Present-Future Key project, she says, something tangible and hopeful can come out of one of the saddest experiences of people’s lives—the loss of a beloved home or business and everything inside of it.
“For many of us, our house keys were not just tools but symbols of home—symbols we will never be able to use again,” says Olds. “But what if we could create a new symbol, one that keeps the essence of our homes alive and close to our hearts?”
Olds lives near where the wildfires destroyed thousands of buildings, including her in-laws’ house on Asilomar Boulevard in Pacific Palisades—which Olds, her husband, and son had recently moved out of. She says she has made donations to several groups offering aid to home and business owners.
“I was born and raised in Los Angeles, and my husband was born and raised in the Palisades. When we met, he introduced me to his hometown, and it felt so special. It’s a village-like community that’s tight-knit and generational,” Olds says. “We were thinking about moving back to be closer to my husband’s childhood school, in the hopes of our son going there someday.”
Her son, who’s 5 years old, recently started transitional kindergarten, and Olds knows how important these places and the people who work there are to the communities they serve.
“Most of the schools in the Palisades area were damaged or burned down to ashes. They will have to rebuild from the ground up,” she says. “Rebuilding our homes is vital, but rebuilding our schools is just as critical to restoring the heart of our community.”
Olds is working with an L.A. area jeweler to create each custom key. Clients select the metal and any gemstones or engraving they want on the pendant—such as the home’s address or other details. Production takes two to four weeks, and prices start at around $2,500.
“We have so much hope that we can get through this,” Olds says. “I told my first client who had a key made that this is the key to success—we’re going to successfully rebuild Palisades.”
Top: A Past-Present-Future Key custom-made pendant can include a gemstone and the name of the street where the lost building was located. (Photos courtesy of Future Fortune)
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