Wednesday, August 30, 2006

11-year old Boy in Hit-and-Run Accident

11-year old Abdul Salih was less than a block from his house in West Oakland when he stepped off the curb and was hit by a hit-and-run driver. The accident left him with two broken legs, both fibia shattered.

Abdul was taken to Oakland Childrens Hospital where he underwent almost four hours of surgery and remained hospitalized for a week. CHO found out that Abdul still had to sleep in the same bed with his mother because she did not have the resources to purchase a bed for him. CHO contacted Random Acts and requested a bed for Abdul.

As fated, soon after we received the request from CHO, EMS Director Jean English contacted Random Acts to donate a boy's bedroom set, a sofabed couch, two TV's and computer furniture. Abdul's mother Nahid said she could use it all.

Random Acts board members Geoff Hunter and Manny Watson picked up the furniture. They were met at Abdul's house by Melvin Andrews and the Fire Crew from Station 1, 'B' shift, who had initially responded to the call when Abdul was injured. After the furniture was moved into the house, Jean presented two gift cards to Nahid from Random Acts. Nahid shed tears of joy and expressed her heartfelt thanks to the Oakland Firefighters.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

New Wheelchair for Beverly Berry


The fire crew at Station 16 'B' shift had responded on a few occasions to the residence of Beverly Berry who lives with her brother who is blind. On one of those occasions they found out that Beverly's wheelchair had been stolen. Beverly, who lives in a second floor apartment, has to be carried down a flight of stairs and placed in her wheelchair that is kept at the bottom of the stairs outside. One day the wheelchair disappeared.

Random Acts received a phone call from Firefighter Sean Brown who asked if we could get Beverly a new wheelchair. Random Acts contacted the Wheelchair Foundation which is located in the Blackhawk Auto Museum in Danville, California and has distributed over half a million wheelchairs to disabled people worldwide. They had one to give us, and the crew assembled it at the fire station.

The day the fire crew went to deliver the wheelchair to Beverly, she was not in the best of health and was not able to get up from the couch to sit in it and try it out. But, she was very grateful and thanked the crew who visited. Beverly has family members who come by to assist her, and they will be able to carry the wheelchair and her downstairs to take her for a ride.





Friday, August 18, 2006

Patten Academy Athletics

Lt. Chris Landry and Station 13 presented a check for $500 to the Patten Academy Athletic Department to help purchase boys basketball uniforms. Accepting the check is Chris Higgenbothem. Also on hand were Joshua Marquez, Thomas Mowrer, Athletic Director Dr. Abraham Ruelas, and Principal Mrs. Sharon Anderson.





Duane Mow
er submitted the request to Random Acts.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Brenda Lee

Occasionally, the Firefighters at Station 16, 'B' shift, would stop at Peet's Coffee on Lakeshore Avenue and run into Brenda Lee sitting on the bench outside, taking a break and sipping her morning cup of coffee. Brenda, who lives with her son on 39th Avenue in East Oakland, is rearing to go every morning after breakfast, boards the bus and visits all her favorite places across town. With the help of her aluminum walker she really gets around, and there's no stopping her. So, it was no surprise that when the Firefighters ran into Brenda they noticed that her walker was getting pretty worn out from all wear and tear. They told her they might be able to do something about that and would try to get her a new one.


Firefighter Paramedic Zac Hilton called Random Acts, told us the story of Brenda Lee, and asked if we could get her a new walker. Well, it just so happened that we had recently purchased some new walkers that were on sale so we could have them on hand just in case we received a request such as this one. We were very happy to get Zac's call and to be able to fulfill his request. We made arrangements with her son to have Brenda meet the Firefighters at Peet's Coffee this morning so we could present it to her. Unfortunately, Zac was off work today, but Brenda arrived right on time and was sitting at her usual spot of the bench waiting for the Firefighters to arrive.

When the Firefighters rolled out Brenda's brand new, bright shiny red walker on wheels, all the regulars who were packed into Peet's stopped and observed the commotion through the front window, while a crowd gathered out in front to watch the presentation. One woman was so touched by the Random Act of Kindness by the Firefighters that she said she wanted to cry. The fire crew adjusted the walker for Brenda's comfort and gave her a demonstration of how to use the walker safely. Brenda was pretty overwhelmed and speechless by it all, so she just did what came naturally. She broke into a heartfelt song and sang her Thanks to the Firefighters. They were thoroughly entertained, and we could only imagine what a crooner Brenda must have been in her younger days.

So, if you're ever walking by Peet's Coffee and happen to see Brenda Lee sitting at her usual spot on the bench out in front sipping her coffee and guarding her new red walker, stop and say, "Hi Brenda, nice walker". She might even sing you a song.





Friday, August 04, 2006

Citizen Hero Javier Guerra

A Citizen Hero Award was presented at Station 18 'C' shift today to Javier Guerra, who accepted the award with his wife and three children. On March 22, 2006, Javier rescued and helped to evacuate a grandmother and her two grandchildren from a house fire by grabbing them and exiting the house when they were reluctant to leave.