August 2025 Burn Bulletin

Get your tickets for this year’s Dinner & Dance in Clovis. This annual event is celebrating 15 years. Come on out and see old friends and make new ones. Your ticket price includes a great meal, opportunity to outbid your neighbor for a tasty dessert, access to our silent and live auctions, games and prizes, and more!

Silent auction item include ticket packages to the Fresno Grizzlies, a Family pack of tickets to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo, and a night out at the movies. Follow us on social media @AARBF to catch more sneak peaks.

Purchase your event ticket, a table for friends and family, or become an event sponsor. All attendees will receive a commemorative glass in honor of our 15th year of making memories in Clovis.

Visit our event page at https://givebutter.com/c/2025AARBFDinnerDance to learn more.

If you would like to donate to our silent or live auction, please contact Katrina at karthur@aarbf.org.

On Sunday July 13th, Torrance Memorial invited AARBF’s Martha Banks to their First Responder Brunch in which Hospital staff, local firefighters and police officers had the opportunity to be recognized with an amazing lunch. We appreciate the partnership we share with Torrance Memorial and loved attending in support of such a wonderful acknowledgement of our first responders. Thank You Dr. Matthew Reiss, and the burn unit staff for putting this wonderful event together.

Did you know, we offer a free book to help teach your child learn how to P.R.E.P.A.R.E. for a wildfire? “The Johnsons P.R.E.P.A.R.E. for a Wildfire” is a great resource, written by former AARBF Executive Director, Jennifer Radics-Johnson, that takes your child through the steps found in our Wildfire P.R.E.P.A.R.E. guide. Discussing wildfire preparedness with your child will help them to better understand what to do during a wildfire emergency. Click here to download a free copy of this book, as well as, the other books in the Meet the Johnsons series.

And if you reside in and near the communities of Coalinga, Shaver Lake, and Piedra watch for upcoming opportunities where you can pick up a free printed copy of The Johnsons P.R.E.P.A.R.E. for a Wildfire book. If you’d like to be on our contact list for this opportunity, please email Katrina Arthur at karthur@aarbf.org.

We are still smiling from our annual Outdoor Trip, July 25-27. We fished, kayaked, paddle boarded, rock climbed, got caught in a surprise hailstorm, ate so many snacks and great food, and spent time laughing and making memories we will always cherish.

A huge thank you to everyone who made this weekend possible, from those who gave us a place to stay, kept us well-fed, and brought all the fun activities to us. Thank you to our campers for choosing to spend a weekend in the mountains with their camp family.

A special shoutout to Dash, who has led this event for 14 amazing years. Your love, dedication, and leadership have made this weekend so special year after year to where it became known as “Dash Camp”.  This was Dash’s last Outdoor Trip and he will be greatly missed.

We also acknowledge and thank our incredible counselors, this trip simply would not happen without you: Buc, Skipper, Shred, Pinecone, Mee Mee, Scooby, Chop Suey, Jett, Gidget, Fuzzy, Mougly, Grizzie, Viper, Ricky Rescue, Alpine, Mouser, Otter, Cedar, Yukon, and Jack Rabbit. You bring the magic, energy, and heart to everything we do!

Would you like to be a part of shaping future programming with AARBF? We are looking for family members, friends, and other caregivers of burn survivors to complete a short survey. This survey will help us to better understand your needs as caregivers and how we can support those needs through new or enhanced programming.

Click here to take our survey today.

For questions, please contact us at info@aarbf.org.

The Friends of AARBF is a quasi Alumni Association for past and present volunteers, camp counselors, staff, prevention partners, fundraising partners, survivors and their families, everyone who has been a super stakeholder for AARBF along the way these past 54 years.

We plan on this launching as a social group to get reconnected as much as anything else at the start, and we hope to grow it into something grander, maybe helping in fundraising to keep the foundation’s work going strong, maybe even become our own auxiliary 501(c)3 non-profit in the future!  While there will be social, volunteer, and donor opportunities, there is no commitment until something strikes your fancy and you feel like participating!

If you have already joined, thank you. Please help us reach more people by sharing this message with your AARBF friends.

If you are interested in joining us, please provide your contact information here: https://forms.gle/AMQrDVo4NcSmZU6i8

For questions about the association, please reach out to Mike “Otter” at 650-515-6142 or otter.mouser@pacbell.net.