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always for the community VOL 16, NO 12
valleysentinel.com
December 2011
SEVENTY-FIVE CENTS
SPOTLIGHT
San Ramon Valley Fire Chief Richard Price Named 2012 American Heart Association Heart of Gold Honoree The San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District is proud to announce that Fire Chief Richard Price has been selected by the American Heart Association as the 2012 “Heart of Gold” honoree. The Heart of Gold Award honors an individual who has made significant contributions to the advancement of cardiovascular disease protection and has enhanced the welfare of the Greater Bay Area community. In January 2011 the San Ramon Valley Fire District, led by Fire Chief Richard Price, released an innovative new location-aware mobile phone application that empowers everyday citizens to provide life-saving assistance to victims of Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Application users who have indicated they are trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can now be notified if someone nearby is having a cardiac emergency and
ECRWSS
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PRESORTED STANDARD US POSTAGE PAID DANVILLE, CA PERMIT NO. 70
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Robin Greenblatt, Basket Brigade Chairperson, at Los Cerros MiddleSchool stands amid the completed baskets, surrounded by students who helped collect the goods and pack them all. This is the 17th year that students at Los Cerros have worked to provide needy families for Thanksgiving. Photo by Wayne Francis
Basket Brigade: Reaching Families in Need for the 17th Year By Tari Perdue, Teacher at Los Cerros Middle School
O n T h u r s d a y, N o v e m b e r 17, 2011, at 2:25 p.m., students dropped their backpacks at the door, streaming into the multip u r p o s e ro o m a t L o s C e r ro s Middle School to put the finishing touches on a community service project two months in the making. Robin Greenblatt, Basket Brigade Chairman, has coordinated the project for the past three years, but the project is a Los Cerros tradition in its seventeenth year. As a result of “Basket Brigade,” 350 families receive a complete Thanksgiving dinner, including canned goods, fresh produce, pantry items and a Safeway gift card to cover the
cost of a turkey, all lovingly packed in a brand new laundry basket, thanks to the many hands that get involved. To personalize the gift even further, each basket includes a toiletry gift bag, a loaf of homemade pumpkin bread, and a handmade Thanksgiving greeting card. It takes a concerted effort of many caring people to make “Basket Brigade” p o s s i b l e, f ro m s t u d e n t s, their parents, and Los Cerros staff to community members and dedicated volunteers, all looking outside o f t h e m s e l ve s t o m a ke a d i f f e r e n c e. T h e P r o d u c e
Exchange, Las Trampas, Inc., Rudney Associates, Safeway, Draeger’s, and Watchismo. com all give generously to the project. Students at Los Cerros carefully create each of the cards that go into t h e b a s ke t s a n d a re a l s o responsible for the canned food drive that provides the staples for each one. Finally, hands of parent volunteers bake and wrap homemade p u m p k i n l o ave s f o r e a c h recipient. All of the effort and materials are organized by Robin Greenblatt. Like an o rc h e s t ra c o n d u c t o r, s h e made music the event all
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came together and volunteers in assembly line fashion, within a thirty-minute time frame, filled 350 baskets. Friday, a caravan of thirtyeight SUV’s lined up in front of Los Cerros to deliver the b a s ke t s t o n i n e d i f f e re n t organizations in Alameda and Contra Costa counties so that 350 families will know that there are people out there that still care. This is Robin’s last year to chair the project, but she is already training new volunteers to coordinate the event so the tradition of giving and community service will continue in Danville at Los Cerros!