San Mateo County Firefighters Foundation

Want to join us in making a difference? We are raising money to benefit San Mateo County Firefighters Foundation, and any donation will help make an impact. 

Over three decades ago Menlo Park Firefighters responded to a Structure Fire that changed the Harris Family forever.  Because of this life altering event, Menlo Park Firefighters became lifelong friends of the Harris Family and started a relationship with the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation.  To learn more about the Harris Family  and their relationship with the AARBF please watch this video:


The Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation (AARBF) is a California-based nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing burns and fires and providing services to those who have been affected by a burn injury. AARBF brings together health care providers, firefighters, emergency workers, burn care professionals, burn survivors, and our community to enhance the quality of life for burn survivors and to make burn injuries a thing of the past. https://www.aarbf.org/  


Over the past three decades there have been several fundraisers that the Firefighters have been a part of to help raise funds for the AARBF.  The most successful of these Fundraisers has always been the Annual Firefighter Pancake Breakfast which first started two decades ago in 2001.


The breakfast started because the Jr. League of Palo Alto Mid-Peninsula called the Menlo Park Fire Protection District and wanted to help with a service event and proposed a Pancake Breakfast.   That same year the attacks of 9/11 occurred and all the funds from the Pancake Breakfast went to the widows and their children of New York City.  Ever since, funds raised have been 100% donated to the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation.


The Annual Menlo Park Firefighter Pancake Breakfast is truly an event that is jointly sponsored by the Menlo Park Fire Protection District and the Menlo Park Firefighters Association.  But without the major stakeholders of: the Jr. League and the Stanford Park Hotel we would never be as successful in raising the amount of funds for the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation that we have been.  This is because the Jr League and Stanford Park Hotel provide most of the volunteers and the food.  Every year we have over 100 volunteers and more than 1000 people in attendance.


This year, due to social distancing because of COVID19 we cannot actually do our Pancake Breakfast.  Which is disappointing as it will be the first time in two decades that the Menlo Park Firefighters Pancake Breakfast will not occur.  What makes the situation it worse is that this fundraising breakfast will typically raise between $12,000 and $15,000.  The AARBF provides a vital service to the community of burn survivors, we can’t allow COVID19 to have a negative impact on their efforts.  We know the community will help reach our goal of $20,000 for 20 years.

Our Ask
For the past three years, Team 2400 has entered the Hayward Firefighters ‘Smash for Cash’ Demolition Derby and helped them raise funds for their non-profit. After doing so, San Mateo County Firefighters also stated a Fundraiser for our non-profit, the ‘San Mateo County Firefighters Foundation.’ The fundraiser was a success and we raised $4890 in 2017 and $4564 in 2018 which was used to launch our ‘Firefighter Behavioral Health Program.’


If you chose to donate, your donation will go to the ‘San Mateo County Firefighters Foundation.’ Because of your donation the Foundation will be able to fund Firefighter Behavioral Health Program in 2020. These funds will offset the costs of renewing the license with the Firestrong.org website and help pay to create short videos for our members as an outreach to explain to them that it is ok to talk about behavioral health issues.


If you are a business owner we would love to offer space on our Derby Car for your company logo. A donation of $500 will have your logo prominently displayed with a 12”x12” sticker on our vehicle and a donation of $1000 will get your branding on both sides of the derby car. We will also be sure to give you maximum exposure on our social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and guarantee that the maximum amount of people know you helped us at the ‘Good Guys Autumn Get Together’ on November 9th, 2019.



These funds were used to offset the cost of hosting a ‘Peer Support Class’ which trained select members how to deal with behavioral health issues within our membership. In 2018 we sent 30 members to this training and in 2019 we sent another 15. These 45 members are responsible for our Peer Support Team, our teams Mission and Goals can be found on our website,https://www.iaff2400.org/peer-support/  . These funds also were used to offset costs in purchasing licensing for the http://www.Firesrtong.org  website for our membership as well as printing fees for the flyers and magnets for distribution to our Firehouses that explain our ‘Peer Support Program’.



This is important to us because according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 2014, 2015, and 2016 had 64, 68 and 69 line-of-duty firefighter fatalities. http://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/fire-statistics-and-reports/fire-statistics/the-fire-service/fatalities-and-injuries/firefighter-deaths  According to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FFBHA) 2014, 2015 and 2016 had 118, 138, and 135 firefighter suicides. The FFBHA estimates that they are only able to track 40% of firefighter suicides. What this means is that there are more firefighter suicides every year then there are line-of-duty deaths. http://www.ffbha.org/ 

Our Ask
Last Year Team 2400 entered the Hayward Firefighters ‘Smash for Cash’ Demolition Derby and helped them raise funds for their non-profit. After doing so, San Mateo County Firefighters also stated a Fundraiser for our non-profit, the ‘San Mateo County Firefighters Foundation.’ The fundraiser was a success and we nearly raised $5000 which was used to launch our ‘Firefighter Behavioral Health Program.’


These funds were used to offset the cost of hosting a ‘Peer Support Class’ which trained select members how to deal with behavioral health issues within our membership. These funds also were used to offset costs in purchasing licensing for the http://www.Firesrtong.org website for our membership as well as printing fees for the flyers and magnets for distribution to our Firehouses that explain our ‘Peer Support Program’.


Guess what, we won the demolition derby and we are doing it again!!  On November 10th at the Alameda County Fairground your firefighters will once again battle it out with other firefighters from the greater San Francisco Bay Area to defend our title of '2017 Smash for Cash Derby Champions.'


This is important to us because according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 2014, 2015, and 2016 had 64, 68 and 69 line-of-duty firefighter fatalities. http://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/fire-statistics-and-reports/fire-statistics/the-fire-service/fatalities-and-injuries/firefighter-deaths  According to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FFBHA) 2014, 2015 and 2016 had 118, 138, and 135 firefighter suicides. The FFBHA estimates that they are only able to track 40% of firefighter suicides. What this means is that there are more firefighter suicides every year then there are line-of-duty deaths. http://www.ffbha.org/



If you chose to donate, your donation will go to the ‘San Mateo County Firefighters Foundation.’ Because of your donation the Foundation will be able to fund Firefighter Behavioral Health Program in 2019. These funds will aid us in supporting a second ‘Peer Support Class,’ offset the costs of renewing the license with the Firestrong.org website and help pay to create short videos for our members as an outreach to explain to them that it is ok to talk about behavioral health issues.


If you are a business owner we would love to offer space on our Derby Car for your company logo. A donation of $500 will have your logo prominently displayed with a 12”x12” sticker on our vehicle and a donation of $1000 will get your branding on both sides of the derby car. We will also be sure to give you maximum exposure on our social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and guarantee that the maximum amount of people know you helped us at the ‘Good Guys Autumn Get Together’ on November 11th, 2018.


Higgy Hesham, owner operator of the https://DecalDoctor.com, has already donated his graphic design time and will be wrapping our Derby Cars at cost. However, he has asked that if you do donate and want your logo on our vehicles that we have your logo by October 20th as an ‘eps file.’ We need it by the 20th so there is enough time to lay out the graphics prior to printing. To coordinate with us you can also simply write a note on ‘Go Fund Me’ with your contact information if you do choose to sponsor our vehicle.

As your firefighters and paramedics you often call on us in your hour of need.  We assist not only because it is our job but because it is our calling.  We are called when you are having your worst day but after a while responding to personal tragedies builds on us.  Sometimes enough becomes enough and we feel the need to do a little more.  Recently Paramedic Firefighter Norman Bolanos had enough.  Norman has been a Firefighter in Menlo Park for nearly two years and was a Paramedic and EMT in our County working for two years prior to that.  Norman took the extra time to organize his fellow Firefighters Matt Pruitt and Brian Berger off dutry with the aid of Danny Giraudo's truck they helped out a mother in need.   We are sharing the following story in hopes that it motivates you to help us help a single mother who has fallen on hard times and is in need of assistance, any help would be greatly appreciated…      

Last summer the collective crews of Fire Station 2 ran several medical aids on a man who had cancer that was missed by his doctors.  He was only diagnosed when his illness developed into stage 4 cancer.  The disease eventually took his life last October.  This man was a father who lived with his daughter and his three year old grand-daughter.  He helped to provide for his daughter who was a single mother.

After her father passed away, the single mother continued to rent the apartment that was a converted garage in East Palo Alto.  In the months following her father’s death, this single mother ended up having to call 911 to have the crews of Station 2 respond to her home due to her daughter having respiratory issues on several occasions.

On one such occasion, the firefighters of Station 2 made mention to the single mother that her home had a strong odor of mold and that the odor may be a factor in the child’s breathing problem.  They told her that the property should be checked for mold and Norman Bolanos went as far as to tell her that if she needs help that we had the ability to connect her to resources.

This week the single mother came to Station 2 in tears.  She had recently found out that her home had ‘black mold’ and was advised that she needed to move for the safety of her child.  She made arrangements to temporarily move in with her brother in Richmond but she needed to store all of her furnishings as her brother’s home did not have enough room for all of her and her daughter’s belongings.  She had just enough money to pay for a single storage unit but did not have the funds to rent a truck or the assistance she needed to move. 

She came to Station 2 looking for the ‘bald’ firefighter that told her we had access to resources.  Brian Berger immediately thought of Matt Pruitt but as it turned out Norman Bolanos was the firefighter in question.  It did not take long for Brian, Norman and Matt to agree to help this single mother move her possessions into storage.

When Matt, Norman and Brian got off duty they attempted to secure a moving van from U-Haul in East Palo Alto.  U-Haul did not open until 9am so they recruited Dan Giraudo, who was coming on duty, to assist in the endeavor by loaning his personal truck to the cause. 

After three hours of moving, it was apparent that the single rental space this single mother rented was not going to be large enough to house all of her belongings.  She went back to the rental office to attempt to rent a second space but was unable to do so because she did not have the $215 needed.  Our men not only spent their day off moving her and her child’s belongings into storage but came up with the funds to make it happen.

Any funds to help this single mother get back on her feet would be much appreciated.  Her only income was being an UBER Driver, a job she lost prior to losing her father when she was in an auto wreck and lost her car.  She has two additional children that are living with her ex due to not being able to support them.  She needs enough money to place down on a car for work and a deposit on a new home.   All she wants is for her family to be back together.

Our Ask
If you chose to donate, your donation will go to the ‘San Mateo County Firefighters Foundation.’ Because of your donation the Foundation will be able to fund issues like  Suicide Prevention through our Behavioral Health Program and Cancer Screening for our members.   We hope to attract small business and corporate sponsors and will be placing thier logo's on our vehicles using a wrap inorder to raise 'big money.'  Our Firefighters will be eternally greatfull for any help you provide. 

If you are a business owner we would love to offer space on our Derby Cars for your company logo.  A donation of $500 will have your logo prominently displayed on one of our three vehicles and a donation of $1000 will get your branding on all three of our Cars. We will also be sure to give you maximum exposure on our social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) and guarantee that the maximum amount of people know you helped us at the ‘Good Guys Autumn Get Together’ on November 11th, https://www.good-guys.com/agtdemoderby.

Higgy Hesham, owner operator of the https://DecalDoctor.com, has already donated his graphic design time and will be wrapping our Derby Cars at cost. However, he has asked that if you do donate and want your logo on our vehicles that we have your logo by October 10th as an ‘eps file.’ We need it by the 10th so there is enough time to lay out the graphics prior to printing. To coordinate with us you can also simply write a note on ‘Go Fund Me’ with your contact information if you do chose to sponsor a vehicle.

The Demolition Derby in Support of Hayward Firefighters L1909 Charitable Fund
Hayward Firefighters, http://www.haywardfirefighters.org/items/DerbyPacket.pdf, have partnered with the Good Guys, https://www.good-guys.com/agtdemoderby, to put on their first ever Demolition Derby at the Alameda County Fairgrounds.  They had 20 cars for the event and San Mateo County Firefighters purchased 3 of them to start "Team L2400 Demo Derby."  The $1000 per entry fee went their Charitable Fund to support the benevolent acts within the City of Hayward.   

San Mateo County Firefighters have never hosted a Charitable Golf tournament, but other firefighters in the area have.  Typically the firefighters do go out and solicit funds from the community to support the tournament by selling 'tee-sponsors'.  The idea came to us to sell space on our Derby Cars to support the ‘San Mateo County Firefighters Fund” similar to NASCAR.        

The San Mateo County Firefighters Foundation
In talking to the other Executive Officers of our Charter the Derby seemed like a perfect opportunity to raise awareness of our ‘San Mateo County Firefighters Foundation’ that we started as a nonprofit last year. Typically, we fund our Foundation with $5000 out of our general fund and only spends those funds in our comminuty. However, this year our foundation has chosen to do something important for our members in two areas. Those areas are related cancer screening and behavioral health for our members.

Behavioral Health
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 2014, 2015, and 2016 had 64, 68 and 69 line-of-duty firefighter fatalities. http://www.nfpa.org/news-and-research/fire-statistics-and-reports/fire-statistics/the-fire-service/fatalities-and-injuries/firefighter-deaths  According to the Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FFBHA) 2014, 2015 and 2016 had 118, 138, and 135 firefighter suicides. The FFBHA estimates that they are only able to track 40% of firefighter suicides. What this means is that there have been more firefighter suicides every year in the past three years then there have been line-of-duty deaths. http://www.ffbha.org/  

This year our Foundation has funded $1500 to allow us to join the ‘Fire Strong’ website that provides a portal for our members to access tools and help, however this will be an annual reoccuring cost and one that we need help with. https://www.firestrong.org/  While this site is a great start for our members, it is only a beginning and we hope to be able to use our Foundation to assist our members in becoming trained as ‘IAFF Peer Support Councilors.’ 
Cancer Screening
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has completed a multi-year study of nearly 30,000 fire fighters to better understand the potential link between firefighting and cancer. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/pgms/worknotify/pdfs/ff-cancer-factsheet-final.pdf
 
What was found was the firefighters studied showed higher rates of certain types of cancer than the general U.S. population. Based on U.S. cancer rates. Fire fighters in the study had a greater number of cancer diagnoses and cancer-related deaths; mostly in digestive, oral, respiratory, and urinary cancers. There were about twice as many fire fighters with malignant mesothelioma, a rare type of cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. Exposure to asbestos while firefighting is the most likely explanation for this. There were more cases of certain cancers among younger fire fighters. For example, fire fighters in the study who were under 65 years of age had more bladder and prostate cancers than expected. When comparing fire fighters in our study to each other: the chance of lung cancer diagnosis or death increased with amount of time spent at fires; and, the chance of leukemia death increased with the number of fire runs.

Because of our increased potential of cancer, we have been looking for a cost-effective manner to screen our members. We believe we have found one with http://www.cancerdogs.ca/ .

Cancer-Dogs is a cancer screening service that uses specially trained dogs to detect the odor of all types of cancer present in a person’s exhaled breath. They developed an inexpensive and non-invasive breath sample kit that collects breath odor with a simple surgical mask that is worn for 10 minutes. Back at their facility, the breath samples are processed, placed into trays and loaded into our custom designed sniffing station where 4 dogs will systematically search, sniffing each sample multiple times. The kits are $20 US per person, plus return shipping.

Our foundation has funded the purchase of 100 cancer screening kits. Some of our employers are funding the use of these kits for our members. However, not all Departments are as progressive as others and we have over 500 members and our Foundation cannot cover all of our members being screened once let alone on an annual basis.