Pickleballers, Firefighters Fundraise for Burn Institute
Jun 06, 2024 02:21PM ● By Gail Bullen, River Valley Times Reporter
Tournament organizer Serda Folk announces the Rancho Murieta Pickleball Club has raised $3,047 to benefit the Firefighters Burn Institute. The event was held at the Stonehouse Park pickleball courts on May 18. Photo by Gail Bullen
Pickleball Fundraiser [5 Images]
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RANCHO MURIETA, CA (MPG) - The Rancho Murieta Pickleball Club and firefighters teamed up for a tournament to benefit the Firefighters Burn Institute at the Stonehouse Park pickleball courts on May 18.
The tournament raised $3,047 for the institute and the Rancho Murieta Kiwanis Club contributed an additional $500 donation.
The Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522 established the burn institute at U.C. Davis Medical Center a year after a jet crashed into the crowded Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour in 1972, killing 23 people and burning many others. Over the years, the burn institute has expanded its mission to include burn recovery for survivors and their families, burn research, public education, and fire and burn prevention.
Serda Folk, who organized the tournament, explained how Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District (Sac Metro) at Station 59 began playing at the Stonehouse Park pickleball courts. Her grandson, Alexander Lawton, is a firefighter for Auburn City Fire. He told her they had set up a pickleball court in their firehouse but didn’t have access to an outside court.
Fork said she struck up a conversation with a couple of Sac Metro firefighters when they were standing in line at Bel Air and mentioned her grandson’s pickleball playing. They said they also played pickleball inside their firehouse although it wasn’t ideal. Folk asked why they weren’t using the courts at Stonehouse Park.
Folk said that Sac Metro Capt. Mike Schanzenback liked the idea so much that he added pickleball as an on-duty exercise option. The idea for the tournament evolved as the firefighters began playing with pickleball club members.
The tournament attracted 40 players, including pickleball club members and 10 to 11 firefighters. In fact, Schanzenbach was a member of the team that took first place. Following the tournament, Folk presented the winnings to Joe Pick, executive director of the burn institute. Pick also gratefully accepted a $500 check from Angelo Lutz, president of the Rancho Murieta Kiwanis Club.
At the same time the tournament was going on, the Kiwanians hosted lessons for children across the street in the basketball court. Jan Tarantino organized the program that attracted eight youngsters.
Pick, who has been executive director of the burn institute since 2021, isn’t a stranger in Rancho Murieta. When he was a fire captain at Station 59 for three years, Pick began participating in the annual Murieta Village Christmas Golf Parade, wearing a Santa outfit and an old-fashioned fire helmet. Pick came back nine more years, after he transferred to another station and then retired. He always recruited the on-duty firefighters to participate and in 2021 brought the fire institute truck and float to the village to take part in the 2021 golf cart parade.
Boots, a certified therapy dog, accompanied Pick to the pickleball tournament. The miniature Goldendoodle came to the Hearts 4 Heroes program that places therapy dogs in firehouses. Boots has an even bigger mission accompanying Pick as he visits burn patients and participates in many institute events.
Boots gains even more fame by posting to his own Instagram account. Pick said that his wife, Linda Parrinella, is the dog’s ghostwriter.
Because he is “especially moved” by pediatric burn patients, Pick is proud of two institute events at Camp Arroyo in Livermore that make their lives happier.
The first is the Firefighters Kids Camp, which benefits burn survivors from ages 6 to 17, and will be held this year from uly 2 to July 7. The three-day Little Heroes Family burn camp from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3 will help burn survivors ages 1 to 6 and their caregivers.
The burn institute also hosted the Adult Burn Survivor Recovery Retreat in South Lake Tahoe last April and mobilizes teams to help burn-injured firefighters.
Other institute activities include burn prevention programs at schools, community events and the Camp Smokey exhibit at the California State Fair. Burn survivors, firefighters and burn team professionals can also win scholarships.
Pick said the burn institute’s best-known fundraiser is the “Fill the Boot for Burns,” which is held at the corner of Sunrise Boulevard and Greenback Lane in Citrus Heights in February in conjunction with National Burn Awareness Week. Many fire departments throughout Northern and Central California also hold satellite boot drives to support the cause.
In 2010, the UC Davis Medical Center’s burn unit underwent expansion and renamed the Firefighters Burn Institute Regional Burn Center after the burn institute raised $2 million, mostly with Fill the Boots campaigns. In linked but separate programs, the UC Davis unit treats burn patients 18 and older and Shriners Hospital for Children Northern California provides free care to children under 18 years.