On October 6, 2018 the Menlo Park Firefighters hosted their Annual Pancake Breakfast and Open House to kick off the beginning of National Fire Prevention Week. The Pancake Breakfast was held at Menlo Park Fire Station 1 and AARBF was honored to be chosen once again as the benefiting charity. We taught Stop, Drop, and Roll; as well as, encouraged all the families that attended to make a safety plan at home in case there is a fire. We reminded them to always know two ways out of a room and to have a meeting place outside the home. We encouraged them to practice this plan because, as we all know, practice makes perfect.
Approximately 1,300 community members came out to support the annual Menlo Park Fire Protection District Pancake Breakfast and enjoyed delicious food, firefighting demonstrations, and resources to help families stay safe! A big thank you to the Menlo Park Firefighters Association for raising an astounding $10,613 for AARBF and Champ Camp!

On October 6, 2018, Anikka Goodman and her family held the 3rd Annual Mark Goodman Chili Cook-off at Molloy’s Tavern in South San Francisco. This awesome Bay Area event attracted teams from South San Francisco Fire Department, South San Francisco Police Department, Colma Fire Department, and many more! There were a total of 10 teams that came out on this beautiful Saturday and the chili was absolutely delicious. Anikka and her family started this Chili Cook-off in honor of her late husband, Mark Goodman. Mark was a dedicated family man and firefighter. He had a true passion for AARBF and we can not express our gratitude that Anikka and her family choose to remember his amazing life with this fantastic fundraiser each year.

On October 13, 2018, our Operations Manager, Jan “Tabby” Share, attended the Monrovia Fire Rescue Open House. This fun event came just in time for the wrap up of National Fire Prevention Week (NFPW) where firefighters and AARBF participated in demonstrating fire and burn prevention and Stop, Drop, and Roll.
Monrovia Firefighters IAFF Local 2415 competed in a pumpkin carving contest and visitors chose the winner. Everyone had the opportunity to dress in turnouts, including our very own Tabby! While teaching Stop, Drop, and Roll, one little girl didn’t want to get on the mat and try, but about 5 minutes later came back up to Tabby with her stuffed bunny and asked that we teach her bunny to do Stop, Drop and Roll. Bunny did a great job and she was very happy to learn what to do if her clothes ever caught on fire. It’s moments like that that help us remember that the skills we are teaching make a difference.

On October 13, 2018 the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety hosted their Annual Pancake Breakfast and it was such a wonderful way to wrap up National Fire Prevention Week (NFPW)! As always, the officers and firefighters served up delicious pancakes, provided tons of great safety resources to the Sunnyvale community and rides on the fire engine for the kids! This pancake breakfast always has hundreds of folks that come out to support and this year they were able to raise nearly $6,000! That’s record breaking and we are so thankful that Sunnyvale DPS continues to select AARBF and Champ Camp to receive these donations every year.

October 13, 2018 was certainly a busy day for AARBF and the fire service alike. As the last day of National Fire Prevention Week (NFPW), AARBF attended a massive community event at Facebook Headquarters that attracted thousands of Menlo Park and surrounding area community members. AARBF set up a table and presented fire and burn prevention tips with Mike “Otter” and Evie “Mouser” Gonzales. There was no shortage of fun activities, live music and delicious food!

Our last big event for National Fire Prevention Week (NFPW) was on October 13, 2018, where the Albany Fire Department hosted their annual Pancake Breakfast and Open House. This event is a fundraiser for AARBF and is meant to bring the community of Albany together and educate them on fire and burn safety tips. As an Albany resident, our Executive Director, Jennifer Radics-Johnson was honored to attend, bring brand new baby Jaden with her!

On October 3, 2018, Dewayne “Dash” Eckerdt, our resident Firefighters in Safety Education (FISE) expert, and Anne “Kim Chi” Hildebrand, our AARBF Northern CA Regional Manager, were in Petaluma conducting a training for 10 new firefighters. The trainees were engaged and loved learning about how to best educate elementary school children in burn and fire prevention. AARBF is very excited to return and train more Petaluma Firefighters in the months to come!

On October 11, 2018, during National Fire Prevention Week (NFPW), the Annual Central Coast Fire Chief’s Burn Relay was held in San Luis Obispo County. This relay is truly unique from our other fundraising relays because it incorporates burn prevention education in local schools, along with our fundraising efforts. This makes for a very fun day for all the firefighter’s that volunteered to come on our relay and go from school to school teaching fire and burn safety tips. The children love seeing all the fire engines, the firefighters, and learning all about Stop, Drop, and Roll, along with other important prevention education topics.
We are also very fortunate that KSBY not only covers this event, but they also sent two news anchors to join us for the day. This year Christina Favuzzi of KSBY joined us on our North Route and Scott Daniels of KSBY joined us for our South Route.

We’d like to thank the following fire departments and schools that participated in this year’s relay: CAL FIRE, San Luis Obispo and the Nipomo Firefighters’ Association at Dana Elementary; Five Cities Firefighters’ Association at Harloe Elementary School; Diablo Canyon Fire Department at Ocean View Elementary School; Five Cities Professional Firefighters Local 4403 at St. Patrick’s School; Five Cities Fire Authority at Grover Heights Elementary School; San Luis Obispo City Firefighters, IAFF Local 3523 at Laguna Middle School; San Miguel Firefighters Association at Lillian Larsen Elementary School; Paso Robles Firefighters at George H. Flamson Middle School; Templeton Firefighters’ Association at Templeton Elementary School; Atascadero Firefighters Association at Monterey Road Elementary School; Santa Margarita Fireman’s Association at Santa Margarita Elementary School; Morro Bay Firefighters Association at Del Mar Elementary; Cayucos Firefighters Association at Cayucos Elementary School and Cambria Firefighters Association at Cambria Grammar.

With the fire department’s donations, and the fill-the-boot donations from the students at select schools, we were able to raise an amazing $13,000 for AARBF and Champ Camp! We are so grateful to have the Central Coast Community’s continued support.

On October 6-13, 2018, AARBF was able to send our Champ Camp counselor and Palo Alto Fireifghter, Shelia “Grover” Donovan, and Champ Camp camper Dorcas to Edgewater, Marlyand to attend the annual IAFF burn camp. They were given the opportunity to meet other counselors and campers from burn camps all over the US and international areas.

Touched by the experience, Champ Camp Counselor Sheila Donovan said, “It was beyond humbling to have been asked to join fellow supporters of burn survivors from across the US states and Canada. Of course, it was a huge honor to have the rare opportunity to meet more burn survivors from lands far from California. To see campers bond, make new friends, learn, challenge themselves and celebrate their greatness was heart warming. To no surprise, those of us volunteering and meeting the amazing IAFF staff did the same. We all shared laughs, tears, fears and strengths. Not to mention some week ending dance moves learned from our campers over the years. We receive far more than we give whether it be measured in our hearts or our steps. Most touching to me was the honor of being trusted by Dorcas’ father, Samuel, to travel with his daughter on this journey from west to east coast. His faith in this opportunity for Dorcas is clear testament to me of how remarkable Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation is when it comes to enhancing the quality of lives of Burn survivors and their loved ones.”

We are so grateful to the Alameda County Firefighters Association (ACFFA) for again hosting their amazing Annual Charity Golf Tournament on October 30, 2018 at the gorgeous Poppy Ridge Golf Course in Livermore, CA. More than a hundred golfers came out to support this amazing event and we are so honored that the ALCO Firefighters Local 55 has again chosen AARBF as the benefiting charity. Not only was it a lovely day of golfing and fun, we even had a few costumes come out in the Halloween spirit!
A big THANK YOU to the firefighters who planned this event and to all the organizations and individuals that came out to support and to those who donated the amazing raffle prizes that we pulled at the end of the day.

We now have an easy way you can make a big difference just by going about your day. Our new app lets you live your life and do good — at the same time!

The app is called My Donations to AARBF and you can find it in the Apple App Store by searching aarbf or by clicking here. It’ll be available for Android phones soon!

Every time you use a linked account we will automatically round up your purchase to the nearest dollar, and that spare change will be donated to help our important work. Here’s how it works: When you make a purchase, like $65.49 on groceries or $8.76 for lunch, we will round up to the nearest dollar and all those nickels, dimes and quarters will be donated to AARBF. And don’t worry, you can cancel at any time.

Please take a moment to download our app today, every little bit helps!

Volunteer Opportunities:

Northern California Volunteer Opportunities

Please contact Anne “Kimchi” Hildebrand at [email protected] or 415-495-7223 x19 if you have interest in any of the following:

• Each year, AARBF partners with the San Francisco Fire Department to educate thousands of kids in fire and burn prevention. This program also entails pre- and post- tests to track learning. We need help pairing students’ pre- and post- tests and scanning them so that they can be graded by a computer program and analyzed by a statistician.
• Anyone living in San Francisco, on the Peninsula, or all the way down to San Jose/Gilroy; we need volunteers to sponsor the toy drive at their local Bank of the West. That would entail collecting the toys every 1-2 weeks.
• Also, we need volunteers to help at the holiday parties, which will take place on December 8 in San Jose and December 9 in Berkeley.

Central California Volunteer Opportunities
Please contact Erika “Kika” Corona-Mendoza at [email protected] or 559-621-4016 if you have interest in volunteering for the following:

• We need volunteers for our Central Valley Holiday Party on December 1. We will need help collecting toys and volunteers to assist at the holiday party itself.

Southern California Volunteer Opportunities
Please contact Margarita “Cubby” Rodriguez at [email protected] or 818-848-0223 x16 if you have interest in any of the following:

• We need help making our Holiday Party on Sunday, December 16, 2018 (times 10-4PM) happen! Volunteer opportunities include mailing invitations before the event, toy gift wrapping and helping day of.
• We are also looking for volunteers to help out at our Pasadena office organizing donated items in our storage room during the month of November.

Upcoming Events:

• December 1: (11:00am – 2:00pm), Central Valley Holiday Party, contact Erika “Kika” Corona-Mendoza at [email protected] or 559-621-4016 with any questions.
• December 2: (1:30pm – 3:30pm), SoCal Survivors Support Group, contact Margarita “Cubby” Rodriguez, [email protected] or 818-848-0223 Ext. 16 with any questions.
• December 4: (7:00pm – 8:30pm), Santa Clara Valley Medical Support Group, contact Anne “Kimchi” Hildebrand at [email protected] or 415-495-7223 with any questions.
• December 5: (6:30pm – 8:00pm), East Bay Burn Support Group, contact Anne “Kimchi” Hildebrand at [email protected] or 415-495-7223 with any questions.
• December 8: (11:00am – 2:00pm), Santa Clara Valley Medical Holiday Party, contact Anne “Kimchi” Hildebrand at [email protected] or 415-495-7223 with any questions.
• December 8: Clovis Firefighters Dinner & Dance, contact Stephanie “Pocahontas” Boydell at [email protected] or 415-495-7223 Ext. 17 with any questions.
• December 9: (11:00am – 2:00pm), East Bay Holiday Party, contact Anne “Kimchi” Hildebrand at [email protected] or 415-495-7223 with any questions.
• December 11: (6:30pm – 7:30pm), Central California Burn Survivor Support Group & Holiday Dinner, contact Erika “Kika” Corona-Mendoza at [email protected] or 559-621-4016 with any questions.
• December 12: (6:30pm – 8:00pm), Santa Rosa Support Group, contact Anne “Kimchi” Hildebrand at [email protected] or 415-495-7223 with any questions.
• December 16: (12:30pm – 4:00pm), Southern California Holiday Party, contact Margarita “Cubby” Rodriguez, [email protected] or 818-848-0223 Ext. 16 with any questions.
• Saint Francis Hospital Burn Support Group canceled for the Holidays, contact Anne “Kimchi” Hildebrand at [email protected] or 415-495-7223 with any questions.