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Tulare: The Giving City

Tulare - Susan Henard, co-pastor at the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church, said she would like everyone to know what Debbie Jaskar did this holiday season, because she thinks it would dispel false perceptions people have about others.

“People are so cynical,” Henard said. “They think everyone is a taker.”

That is certainly not true of Jaskar, who is a 48-year-old disabled truck driver on a fixed income. While she has participated in the Vineyard/FoodLink of Tulare County food distributions when she has had trouble making her groceries stretch to the end of the month, she is very much a giver.

Jaskar had signed up to receive a Christmas food basket in October, but before Christmas she went to see Henard again, this time with a bag and a request.
The bag was filled with nearly 30 toys she had purchased on sale throughout the year when she had managed to save a little money. She wanted to donate them to the church's toy giveaway.

The request: “Please take my name off your food list, because in October we weren't doing so well, but we're doing better,” Henard recalled her saying
“She gave up her spot and not only gave it up, but gave us toys,” an amazed Henard said.

When she delivered the toys at the church, she heard Henard trying to explain to others who had requested food baskets that “she had to take the people who signed up first,” Jaskar said.

That's when she decided to give up her slot. “They needed it more; I'm not going to starve,” she said.

As for the toys, Jaskar said she grew up in a family of seven children — she was the only girl — with a single mother who struggled each Christmas to get gifts for her kids.

“I told myself, 'When I get older, I want to help and do what I can,'” she said. “If I ever win the lotto, the first thing I'm going to do will be for the homeless and families that don't have anything.”

Jaskar is a giver — and so are the many hundreds of other Tulare residents who have come together to make Christmas a bit happier for those struggling economically.

What follows is just a small sampling of the giving that has occurred during this special season:

Nearly Double

Vineyard Christian Fellowship, in conjunction with FoodLink of Tulare County, provided food boxes for 850 families for Christmas 2007. This year, the little church of 150 people and its volunteers distributed boxes for 1,650 families.

“You can't believe the amount of people in need,” Henard said. “Their husbands were working and then they were laid off and they don't know what they're going to do…The needs are very, very great.”

In addition to the food that comes from FoodLink, the church's Compassion Ministry raised and spent $7,500 more on groceries at R-N Market, which “has been very, very good to us,” Henard said.

The church also conducts a toy giveaway during the two days food boxes are distributed.

“Our church sanctuary is taken down and turned into a giant toy store where kids up to age 13 can come into and select their own toy,” Henard said. “It's such a wow factor when the kids come in and see the boys.”

Harley Davidson of Visalia donated toys for about 1,200 children and the Oakdale 4-H donated about 100 toys.

'Huge Outreach'

Principal Barbara Xavier says her students at Garden School never cease to amaze here. After collecting more than 5,000 cans of food for Vineyard Christian Fellowship's food pantry at Thanksgiving, student body leaders decided to undertake another service project, this time playing Santa to 220 third grade children at a needy school outside the Tulare City School District.

“Every child gets a piece of clothing and every child gets a toy,” Xavier said a couple days before the gifts were assembled and taken to the other school.
“It's a huge outreach and my Garden people have been terrific,” Xavier said. “Garden families — some who have multiple kids — every single one of them adopted a child. I actually had one parent come in and say, 'I'd like 10.'”

Garden students are “special kids,” she said. “There have been moments at other schools and in other years that I have had students who have been very sensitive, concerned and compassionate about the needy… [but] I have never been part of a school community has been so anxious to do things regularly to help others.”
The outreach was the student body's third of the year. Three more are scheduled for the spring.

'Blown Away'

Tulare District Hospital employees decided to celebrate the holidays in a different way this year and 40 Tulare families are having a brighter Christmas as a result.
With the help of the city's two school districts, each TDH department adopted a family, decorating a tree and buying gifts that in most cases were delivered to their home.

The hospital got things rolling by buying 31/2-foot tall, pre-lit trees from Lowe's, which was “very generous” in its pricing, and conducted a decorating contest among the departments, said John Barbadian, vice president for human resources.

“When we did the judging, I just got blown away,” Barbadian said. “In one department they actually had bought two two-wheel bikes; another had collected more than $500 in gift certificates they were going to give their family and in the OB Department, one of the nurses actually knitted sweaters for the kids.”

Delivering the trees and presents was a moving experience for many employees, he said. “At one house, the mother had passed away earlier in the year on one of the kid's birthday and the father told the group, 'I'm so grateful” … I don't know what I've done to get this.”

Times are tough economically on a lot of people, but “the silver lining is people are coming together to help one another,” he said.

'Giving Like Crazy'

One again Rick and Nannette Allison spearheaded American Thunder's annual Christmas Dreams Toy Run, which found a large group of bikers — led by Allison wearing a Santa Claus suit — delivering toys, clothing, blankets and grocery certificates to 14 families last weekend.

Allison said people have been especially generous in donating to the run this year, despite the poor economy. “They're giving like crazy,” he said.

R-N Market donated $500 worth of gift certificates and Christmas Dreams bought an additional $1,000. One person donated 100 Teddy bears.

The list of giving moments in the community goes on and on and includes The Salvation Army providing food and gifts for 500 families with the help of volunteers who staff the kettles and supporters of Res-Com's annual Christmas party. It also includes the Tulare Police Department's annual Toys for Kids, which made deliveries at 646 households this year and the numerous efforts by students, churches and others to replenish the shelves of Tulare Emergency Aid.
Merry Christmas, Tulare.

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Planning, Technology Helped Fight
Possibly Largest Blaze in 25 Years

Tulare -A change in strategy, technology and determination all played a major role in the success firefighters had in limiting damage at the Land O' Lakes fire last week.

Fire Chief Mike Threlkeld called the fire possibly the city's largest since the old Tulare Hotel burned in 1983. He said by far it was the most challenging the city has faced in more than a decade.

The Dec. 16 fire did in excess of $2 million damage to a 90,000-square- foot building at the creamery, which processes more than 12 million pounds of milk a day, but the savings was estimated at several million dollars, City Fire Investigator Frank Furtaw said.

The fire broke out shortly after 8 a.m. and it was nearly two hours later before it was contained. Furtaw said firefighters were still dousing small flames eight hours after the fire began and crews did not leave the scene
until 9 p.m.

“When we got there and saw what we had, we knew it was going to overwhelm us,” Threlkeld said. “We knew we needed a second aerial device (ladder truck).”
Besides requiring nearly every Tulare city firefighter and piece of equipment, the fire brought two engines and a ladder truck from the county, as well as a ladder truck from the city of Visalia. County and Visalia crews and engines also covered the city while Tulare firefighters attacked the blaze.

The fire began in a second story storage room used by Yoplait Yogart when it operated a plant at the creamery, Furtaw said. The room had not been used in three years, but it still had electricity and apparently that is what started the fire that quickly spread to the roof.

“The only plausible conclusion - looking at everything - is electrical,” Furtaw said.
Power to the entire building went out at 8 a.m. and soon afterwards workers noticed smoke coming from the room, he said. Something significant had to occur to knock out power to the entire building, part of which is dry storage and part cold storage, but they could not pin it down. “It was a significant short,” he added.

Furtaw said a worker had entered the sealed room just 20 minutes prior to the power going out and didn't notice anything unusual.

The building, constructed in the 1970s, is part of Plant 2, which was shut down and evacuated, while the creamery's other three plants continued to operate, Furtaw said.

As big a challenge as the fire was, damage was limited mainly to the roughly 40-by-50 foot room and the roof above. There was water damage in other parts of the building because the sprinkler system, although below where the fire was burning, did activate.

Change of Plans

“It was burning pretty good,” when engines arrived, said Threlkeld, but by the time firefighters were able to get set up and get to the roof, the fire had progressed.
Plant employees were attempting to contain the fire when firefighters arrived, but because it was burning just below the roof surface, they were not very effective, he said.

Threlkeld praised the employees, saying they had already done a good job of accounting for everyone in the building and already had drawings ready for firefighters. “Everything we asked, they had an answer. Cooperation was 100 percent,” he said.

Workers also quickly shut off ammonia that is used to power the refrigeration units, eliminating what would have posed a danger to both firefighters and the public had there been an extensive leak, Threlkeld said.

Firefighters began attacking the fire from the roof, but were not having a lot of success. An hour into the fire, crews were reporting the roof was getting “spongy” and the decision was made to pull them off of the roof. That proved to be a good call.

“One of the steel I-beams had separated, the roof was near collapse,” said Threlkeld, although it did not collapse. “There are hundreds of stories of firefighters getting killed on roofs. We were very lucky, but we're better trained and better prepared.”

So, the firefighters had to take another approach - one that proved very effective.
They went inside and located the fire using thermal imaging and applied a master stream from the Tulare Fire Department ladder truck, the chief said. That master stream was 500 gallons a minute.

“That's when we really started making progress,” he said, adding the thermal imaging tool, which the department has had on its engines for five year, “is a tremendous tool. Instead of guessing, you can find the fire.”

An hour into the fire and Threlkeld was worried they could lose the entire plant, but the new approach was turning the situation around in favor of the firefighters, who were able to cut holes in the roof to get the water to where the blaze was burning.
In all, more than 40 men and women attacked the fire.

“One of the things I was most impressed by was the staff's effort. The men and women did a superior job. They did everything in their possible power,” the chief said.

The size of the building and its 20-foot height posed many challenges for the department, especially since it has only one ladder truck. The city's 2000 model truck replaced the old 1974 model in 2002. A new one would cost $1 million, Threlkeld said.

Because of the height of the building and lack of space to set up ladders, crews could not use ladders to access the roof. While the city's truck was the only used to apply water, Visalia's truck was used for access.

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