Pasadena leaders delivered a message of resilience and reflection at the 52nd annual Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast Thursday, May 1.

Pasadena city officials, local religious leaders and representatives of dozens of local businesses and nonprofits gathered at the Pasadena Convention Center. Friends in Deed is a nonprofit interfaith organization that offers supportive services for those experiencing homelessness.

The theme of the event was “Resilient Pasadena: Rebuilding our Community’s Future,” a reference to the impact of the devastating Eaton fire.

Pastor Amy Aitken of First United Methodist Church of Pasadena recalled being at the convention center almost four months ago to help the first few people who fled to center for shelter including an elderly woman who had evacuated with the clothes on her back and a cell phone.

“As I walked over here this morning I remembered the incredible compassion of our police officers who picked her up off the street, our firefighters who were bravely defending homes,” Aitken said.

Mayor Victor Gordo repeated a common refrain since the Eaton fire that while separated geographically, Pasadena and Altadena are united.

“We are one community,” Gordo said. “In fact, I’ve said to people ‘we call ourselves the Dena.’ When you say you are from the Dena what you’re saying is you’re from the Pasadena and Altadena community.”

Gordo said Pasadena and Altadena stands out from a country where division and separation are common refrains.

“This community comes together,” Gordo said. This community, we embrace people who don’t look like us or talk like us. In this community we stand up for one another and in this community we help each other.”

Gordo introduced Fire Chief Chad Augustin who gave the keynote address of the event. Augustin contrasted the celebrations and pageantry of the Rose Bowl game and parade that started the year with how the world turned upside down within a week.

He recapped the city’s response to the fire and the efforts of local first responders in the days and weeks that followed.

While he spoke, photos and video from the night of the fire played on large projectors showing burning homes and first responders helping evacuate residents.

Augustin closed with explaining a tradition of taking firefighter trainees to the Rose Bowl for a workout that includes running all the steps in the venerable stadium.

When they are done Augustin takes them outside for one more workout. Augustin explained that the trainees do 343 burpees in honor of the number of firefighters killed on Sept. 11.

“I tell them there’ll be a day in their careers that they will be asked to do more than they previously believed was possible,” Augustin said. “Burpees are a great analogy of life. You fall down and you get back up and we do that over and over and over again.”

The event concluded with all the clergy in attendance gathering in the front of the room and those who lost their places of worship in the fire were invited onto the stage as the audience sang “Sanctuary Song.”