Burn Bulletin

On Saturday, December 7th, we held a holiday party in a new space at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC). This was the first of two parties taking place in NorCal. Attendees has a great time with fun family activities such as cookie decorating, making ornaments coloring, painting, and holiday card making. They also got to meet Santa who was able to give out lots of toys thanks the help of some very special holiday elves.  

On Sunday, December 8th, we hosted our second NorCal holiday party at the UCSF Health Saint Francis Hospital in San Francisco. Having this party within the hospital, as with the party at SCVMC, is very special. AARBF’s Michael Knopf was delighted to see survivors who he first met while they were patients return to the hospital with their families for a fun day rather than medical reasons. It was great to see them be able to interact with the nurses and staff on a different level. Attendees had a variety of activities while awaiting their turn to see Santa. They enjoyed snowman sculpting, tree decorating, Jenga, Cornhole, and a variety of other board games. Even though it was December the ice cream sundaes were a bit hit. 

In addition to the holiday parties, Santa was able to visit burn patients at both hospitals who were unable to attend the festivities, greeting families and sharing gifts. At SCVMC, we were delighted to have our friend Rana “Lil Bear” Stephan join Santa for the hospital tour where they also visited the pediatrics unit.  

We are so very grateful for the many volunteers who support our annual holiday parties. At SCVMC, Linda Carrier along with her family and friends assisted with party planning and the toy drive through BMO Bank; Rana Stephan, Lea Lyn Zaballero, and Carissa Chezar along with other hospital staff facilitated the use of the room and helped to welcome families to the event; and Natalie Plecque and volunteers arrived extra early to help set up for the event. 

Making the magic happen in San Francisco were Donna Europa, Rommel Gotico, and Grace Rivera for providing the space for the holiday party and Donna and Rommel for providing the wonderful decorations; Amber Piggue, Berkeley Fire, Shelby and John Fischer supplied the amazing food, beverages, and ice cream that were so appreciated by our guests; Hydra, Chop Suey and volunteers arrived early to help set up for the event and Emmet from Berkeley Fire made all of the volunteers happy by arriving first and setting up an incredible coffee/hot cocoa station and breakfast for the volunteers.

On December 18th, CRMC joined the Fresno Fire Department who opened their doors at the Headquarters building in Downtown Fresno for a unique shopping day for three Central Valley burn survivor families. Youth burn survivors were invited to “shop” from toys donated from the Traffic Controllers Supervisors Association (TCSA). AARBF’s Katrina Arthur accepted the toys at a TCSA luncheon earlier in the month. This is the second year TCSA has conducted a toy drive for this purpose. The generosity of the TSCA also included a little something for the parents with the donation of gift cards to local retailers. Thank you, TCSA, your partnership helps make the holidays a little brighter and easier for these families.

Stanley is recalling 2.6 million mugs sold in the U.S. after the company received dozens of consumer complaints, including some users who reported getting burned and requiring medical attention. 

The recall covers all Stanley Switchback and Trigger Action stainless steel travel mugs, which are double-walled mugs sold in a number of colors and sizes that came with a polypropylene lid, according to the recall notice posted Thursday by the Consumer Safety Product Commission. The Stanley logo, a winged bear with a crown, appears on the front and bottom of the mug. 

The company has received 91 reports worldwide about the lids coming loose while in use, leading to 38 burn injuries. The CSPC said 16 of the complaints stemmed from U.S. consumers, including 2 burn injuries.

Read the full story: https://tinyurl.com/585ppma4

Applications are now open for Champ Camp Counselors and CITs. This year’s camp will be held June 7th-14th (Counselors arrive Thursday, June 5th). 

Apply today: http://app.campdoc.com/register/aarbf

Applications close on February 28, 2025. 

If you have any questions, please reach out to Erika “Kika” Mendoza at emendoza@aarbf.org.

Each year, the Kiwanis Club of Clovis provides the cash bar for our annual Dinner & Dance and then donates the proceeds to us in support of our programs and services, such as Champ Camp. On Thursday, November 14th, Katrina Arthur was up bright and early to attend the morning Kiwanis meeting and was honored to be presented with a check for $2,000. This donation will sponsor two children to attend our 40th Champ Camp in June 2025.

November 13-15, Daniel Chacon attended the bi-annual conference for the International Association of Burn Camps (IABC) hosted by the Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation at their Twin Lakes Camp. At the conference, Daniel was honored to accept two awards. The first was in honor of his work with the IABC Board of Directors. The second, the Camp Spirit Award which was awarded posthumously to James Bosch for his many years of work within the burn community and his contribution towards burn camp programming. This award was accepted on behalf of James’ family. Daniel enjoyed his time networking with and learning from other camp professionals from all across North America.

During the month of November, we had wonderful community partners hosting toy drives in the Central Valley, greater Los Angeles area, and San Jose/San Francisco Bay area to benefit AARBF’s holiday parties.

In the Central Valley, we partnered with the Central Valley Firefighters Credit Union, Sierra High CSF, Coalinga Fire Department, and the Leon S Peters Burn Unit at CRMC. For the Los Angeles party, we were excited to partner for the first time with F&A Federal Credit Union. In the Bay area, we partnered once again with the Bank of Montreal (BMO Bank) at fourteen of their locations from Gilroy to Redwood City. The toy drive within BMO Bank will continue until the end of December and the toys collected will be provided to the burn units to use for their young patients all year round.

We greatly appreciate our toy drive partners and all they do to make the holidays brighter for burn survivors and their families.

During November, Daniel Chacon visited with the representatives of the Northern California Fire Prevention Officers Association and was presented with a check for $2,500 which was proceeds from their annual Golf Tournament. Daniel also met up with our friends at Sunnyvale Public Safety Officer’s Association where he received a check for $7,625 from their annual Pancake Breakfast. These partnerships ensure we can continue providing much needed prevention programming throughout California as well as emotional support services to our burn survivors.