Dear Editor,
I would like the readers of Arcadia Weekly to know just how moved I am about a recent incident with the Arcadia Fire Department. I volunteer at City Of Hope in the Pediatric Oncology ward and on Wednesday, December the 14th I had just started my shift and man was I surprised. I was about to enter a patients room from a left approach when 4 Firemen and a dressed-up Santa entered from the right. I paused as they entered and circled the boy’s bed and began singing Christmas songs to him. Then, after presenting him with a Christmas gift a picture was taken with the fireman, Santa-(an Arcadia Fireman) and the patient.
To see the joy expressed in the face of this cancer patient for this wonderful gesture caused my eyes to well-up. And, the Firemen did this to each of the stricken children that morning. They do this each year-not on the “clock”, but as volunteers! They do this to bring joy this Christmas season to children who are in a world of hurt and who will clearly not have much of a Christmas as our children and grand children will, gathered around our trees in the comfort of our homes.
Way to go guys—you’re my heroes.
– Sincerely, Jim McKellar
