Santa celebrates Christmas with burn survivors
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| Sandra Yovino, burn center manager, hugs burn survivor Lou Nevarez. |
The party begins at 9:30 a.m. with Santa and his elves passing out gifts to the children. About 350 burn survivors and guests are expected to attend.
Guests are invited to make picture frames, create reindeer magnets and take a photo with Santa. Also, children will be encouraged to take home a bear from the “teddy bear tree” – a Christmas tree full of donated stuffed animals.
“This is a chance for burn survivors to share stories and just give thanks for the year,” said burn center nurse manager Sandra Yovino. “It’s also a time for the burn team and survivors to reconnect and celebrate with family and friends.”
Yovino said that burn survivors can face years of healing and therapy and most consider the burn staff their family.
“And it’s just natural for family to get together and celebrate the holidays and all we are thankful for,” she said.
The holiday gathering is sponsored by the Leon S. Peters Burn Center at Community Regional, the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation and local fire departments.
Community Regional’s burn center is the only round-the-clock, fully staffed burn center between Los Angeles and Sacramento. Last year, Community performed more than 9,300 burn therapy procedures and nearly half of those treated were children. In April 2007, the burn center relocated to its new home in the Leon S. Peters Burn Center on the 58-acre Community Regional Medical Center campus in downtown Fresno.
This story was reported by Mary Lisa Russell. She can be reached at mrussell@communitymedical.org.