Kids learn fire safety from pros
Andrea Egger
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Four-year-old Jordan Reese of Gallup walked out
of the Gallup Fire Department's Fire Safety House with a wrinkled-up
face.
"Ooh. That's stinky!"
He just walked through a fog of fake smoke that looks and smells
like real smoke one might encounter in a fire.
The smoke was just one of the features of the Fire Safety House,
a small trailer with a stove that gets hot and that has windows
to open and shut or crawl out of.
About 50 Gallup children at Lincoln Elementary School's Summer
Program walked through the Fire Safety House and listened to Gallup
fire marshals Andy Carabajal and Raymond Ross talk about fire
safety.
The school's Summer Program has a host of activities for students
ages 3 through 17. School librarian Carrie Olivar said students
also do arts and crafts and cooking, and they go bowling, roller-skating
and swimming.
The school also has computers where students can get on the Internet,
with classroom teachers and other helpers watching to make sure
they don't get into trouble on the Net.
On Thursday, the school invited the fire marshals to talk to the
students and show them the fire house. The students came prepared.
"What do you do if your clothes catch on fire?" Carabajal
asked the group.
"Stop, drop and roll!" replied a roomful of small voices.
"Do you play with matches?"
"No!" answered the chorus of voices.
"A lighter?" asked Carabajal.
"No!" said the chorus.
They also showed the firefighter how to check a door for fire
with the back of the hand.
Carabajal played a short videotape showing fire safety by a group
of young rap musicians. A gutted house shows up on one segment
of the tape.
"Show what you can do. Do you see what happened to this house?
Don't let that happen to you!" rapped one man on the tape.
Meanwhile, Ross spoke about a fire extinguisher while he held
one up to the students.
"This is the cheapest form of insurance you can buy for your
family," Ross said. "This can save your entire family.
This can save your house. This can save you."
He reminded students to check their smoke detectors and make sure
the battery is changed once a year unless the smoke detector starts
making a humming noise, which indicates the battery needs to be
changed right away. He said firefighters find a lot of homes where
someone took the battery out of the smoke detector because it
was humming.
Ross told the kids to go home and make sure their smoke detectors
have batteries in them. He said families have died instead of
replacing a battery that costs about 60 cents.
Ross let the students go into the fire house and touch the warm
stove and talk about turning pot handles inward on the stove so
that boiling water doesn't come tumbling down on small faces.
The students weren't the only ones excited about the fire house.
"This is cool!" said teacher assistant Eric Diaz. "I've
never been in here before."
When Ross operated the "stinky" fog, students began
climbing out a back door. "The worst thing you can do in
a fire is panic," Ross reminded as students climbed through
the fog.
Ross told the students about a 5-year-old boy who died in a fire
because he got scared and hid in the bathroom rather than trying
to find a way out.
"That bothers us a lot that we lost a little friend,"
Ross said.
He hopes that with the information the firefighters gave Thursday,
students will be able to avoid fires or at least know what to
do in case of a fire.
Olivar said the Summer Program really tries to promote the Fire
Safety House. "A lot of these kids are latchkey kids,"
she said.
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Mexico visit 'enriches Gallup medical
team
Heather Armstrong
Staff Writer
GALLUP — The 17-member volunteer team of medics and translators
provided free medical care to the indigenous people of Mexico in June
and came back from the nine-day excursion richer from the experience.
"This is what I became a health care provider for," Dr.
Robin Berrin, the dentist in the group, said, adding that it was rewarding
to work with people in such need. "You feel like you're making
a bigger difference."
"The best part was providing services to people who had nothing,"
Stephen Heath, a doctor of internal medicine, said. "Just to
get Tylenol for a headache they were thrilled!"
The medics dug into their own pockets and vacation times to volunteer
their services to provide primitive treatment to the Tepeguanes Indians
near Durango, Mexico. They were gone June 15-25.
"It's so rewarding," Lorenzo Dominguez, a Gallup Indian
Medical Center nurse said of the trip he conceived. "I'm sure
it's making everyone a different person."
"There were a lot of challenges," Heath said. "We did
a lot of improvising to provide the best care we could."
Creative doctoring
Ingenuity overcame the challenges. Berrin plugged a Magic Chef toaster
into a generator and cranked it up to 450 degrees to sterilize his
tools. The tools took a Clorox bath and then steamed in the oven for
20 minutes to ensure their cleanliness.
Most team members agreed that lack of water was a concern. Sanitary
wipes helped to clean hands and tools. The group pieced together a
make-shift shower. It consisted of an aluminum soda can with holes
punched in the bottom connected by a small hose to a five-gallon jug
of water perched on top of a lean-to. Duct tape held the contraption
together.
"I had a vision of being an old cowboy," Berrin said of
the primitive shower. "I thought this must be how the cowboys
did it."
Undaunted by the lack of medical facilities, the team set up clinics
in school houses and community centers. One of the clinics was set
up in an old tin-covered community building. Each medic staked out
a corner. All was well until a pelting rain came down on the tin roof,
drowning out the translators. Berrin, who was extracting teeth, strained
to hear over the
din.
Treatments
Heath said they mainly treated for worms and malnutrition. The medics
did notice differences between the Indian groups treated and the Mexican
groups. The former, whose diet mainly consists of beans and tortillas
in the colder months and squash and corn in the summer, had more problems
with worms. The Mexicans, though, showed symptoms of diabetes and
hypertension.
Berrin was estimated to have provided dental care to around 415 patients,
which adds up to a lot of pulled teeth an estimated 110 teeth in all.
In keeping with Mexican dietary patterns, the patients asked if they
could still eat chili with the prescribed
medications.
Almost smooth sailing
The weary group said they got along well, despite being tired from
driving 32 straight hours. The group left Gallup at 10 a.m. June 15
and arrived in Suchil, Mexico at 7 p.m. the next evening. They did
take one wrong turn, which they estimate cost them around an hour
and a half, but overall their navigation was on target.
"But no one complained," Dominguez said.
The personal vehicles held up well, with the exception of a thermometer
that was quickly replaced. The church in Suchil, whose priest helped
set up the trip, donated a truck. But, a faulty starter necessitated
that the group push-start the vehicle until the engine chugged to
life.
The medics were repaid for their volunteer efforts with singing and
food. Dominguez recalled their arrival in Suchil, where they were
greeted with clanging bells, were fed dinner and treated to a night
of dancing and singing.
"They made us feel like royalty," Dominguez said.
Language differences
Translators were an essential component. Sometimes three-way translation
was necessary from Indian to Mexican, then to English. Berrin emphasized
the importance of communication.
"Good health care is more than just drilling and filling and
plucking teeth," Berrin said, adding that his goal is to learn
conversational Spanish by the time next year's trip rolls around.
Kris Lambson, a pediatric nurse, said she noticed many similarities
between the ailments they treated the children for in Mexico and what
they treat here in Gallup. Lambson said several mothers were concerned
that their children were not eating much. Closer investigation showed
that the children loved candy and so they were filling up on it before
mealtimes. Overall, Lambson said that parents mostly wanted to be
reassured that their children were healthy.
Planning for next year's trip is already in the works. Dominguez said
he hopes to be able to take more mechanical equipment since all they
took was a generator. Also, the team said they want to take more dental
tools so they could perform fillings since Berrin's limited manual
tool supply allowed him only to remove teeth, not to fill them.
Among those who went were: Robin and Virginia Berrin; Sandra Blythe;
Julio, Lorenzo, Maria and Ulysses Dominguez; Aida Ramos-Heath; Stephen
Heath; Allyn and William Krzymowski; Kris Lambson; Carlos Lopez; Richard
Stam; Racheal Tanner and Marcie Ullom.
Dominguez applauds the group.
"They did it with their hearts with no intention of getting a
reward," Dominguez said.
The group is accepting donations for next year's trip. For more information
call Lorenzo Dominguez at 726-9374.
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Grant writing class a success
Tara Drolma
Staff Writer
GRANTS — Students in a New Mexico State University class on grant
writing this week said the class was a success and they hope NMSU
will schedule more classes on the topic.
Doug Bocaz-Larson had a full house for his eight-hour class on basic
grant writing. His students included county employees, teachers, members
of a volunteer fire department, nonprofit organizations and private
individuals looking for funding for projects such as a community water
system, communications technology, ways to help students with speech
therapy and funding to start businesses.
Bocaz-Larson knows how to write successful grant proposals. From 1993
to 1999, he landed some $500,000 in grants for city and county governments
and school districts.
Cibola County Undersheriff Johnny Valdez said he attended the class
because "knowing the situation the county is facing at this time,
Sheriff (Manuel) Lujan and I chose to look for other means of finding
funds for technology equipment and training for the sheriff's department."
Valdez, who attended the session along with two of his officers, told
Bocaz-Larson he already knew much of what was presented because he
has prepared other grants, but that the class gave him insight on
what foundations are looking for.
Previously Valdez has applied for federal grants. The applications
for a federal grant are generally 45 to 50 pages long while applications
for foundation funding are less extensive usually two to 10 pages.
Not only are federal applications very long, they can be very complicated
and require a lot of detail, Bocaz-Larson said. Foundation grants
are much shorter and simpler.
Overall, students said they thought the class was helpful and urged
Bocaz-Larson to teach an advanced grant writing class.
Susan Burson, a fifth-grade teacher at Milan Elementary School, said
this is all new to her. Judy Gillman, principal at Milan Elementary,
has been encouraging staff at the school to write grants, but Burson
said felt she needed some training first. She is seeking funding to
buy computers for her classroom so she can use technology to teach
language arts skills and improve her students' test scores.
Bernice Gardener, president of the Bluewater Acres Domestic Water
Users Association, attended the class to get a better understanding
of the grant writing process. She said the Council on Government in
Gallup generally writes federal grants for the association.
Gardener said the information she got from the class will help her
make more logical requests for funding. Although the association does
not write the grants, it does help gather information for the application.
"Our grants are complicated," Gardener said. The association
is seeking funding for a new water tank.
Bocaz-Larson, who has a master's in education, moved to Crownpoint,
two years ago to teach computer classes at the Crownpoint Institute
of Technology. His two undergraduate degrees are in English and education.
He was working as an elementary teacher when he began writing grants.
He and his wife, Kim, a teacher at the high school in Crownpoint,
spent one year in South America teaching English. The couple moved
to Grants two months ago.
Besides his proficiency in language arts and computers, Bocaz-Larson
has been involved with community theater for 15 years as an actor,
director, and producer. He has published several plays and received
a third-place award in a national contest for one of them.
Bocaz-Larson hopes to help get a community theater started in Grants.
He has already given one workshop on improvisation at the Mission
at the Riverwalk Restaurant and another is planned for July 27. There
is no charge for the class. The group is holding tryouts for a Murder
Mystery Sandwich theater to be held at the Mission on two nights in
September.
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Faster machine causes problems for Gallup
teams
Carrie Loretto
Sports Editor
GALLUP — A pitching machine adjustment caused some problems for
the Gallup teams in the N.M. AABC Roberto Clemente State Tournament
Thursday.
After Las Cruces pounded the ball at will in a 13-0 first round win
over Gallup and then complained that the speed was too slow, tournament
officials adjusted the machine that is used to pitch to batters from
34 miles per hour to 42 - the minimum speed required by AABC rules.
The effect was noticible.
It took the Gallup Diamondbacks three innings before they were able
to adjust to the higher speed. When they did, they scored the game's
only two runs as they eliminated the Gallup Yankees 2-0 in the first
game.
"This speed is the fastest they put it at all year. They moved
it up to six (42 mph) to be in regulation, we've played at four and
a half (34 mph) all year," Diamondbacks manager Frank Trujillo
said. "It's faster than we're used to."
The other two Gallup teams, the Giants and Dodgers seemed to fare
a little better, but it did take the Dodgers a little longer, as they
had to come from behind to beat the Giants 5-4.
The Diamondbacks planned to get in some batting practice this morning
before this afternoon's contest against Espanola at 3 p.m.
Also today, the Dodgers will face Grants at 1 p.m.. In the winner's
bracket, the Rockies will face Las Cruces at 6 p.m. followed by an
8 p.m. fourth round game.
Gallup Diamondbacks 2, Gallup Yankees 0
Diamondbacks shortstop P.J. Gutierrez, who had the first hit of the
game off the pitching machine, led off the fourth inning with his
second hit, a single into right centerfield. With only two other baserunners
on base in the first three innings, Gutierrez then made the most out
of the next hit by Christopher Trujillo.
Trujillo's hit was just under Yankees second baseman's Cody Scaggari's
glove, but righfielder Brandon DeWeese came up with the ball and almost
threw Trujillo out at second. However, in a heads-up baserunning play,
Trujillo engaged the defense in a rundown between first and second
allowing Gutierrez to score from third.
After the next two batters struck out, Marcus Salazar reached base
when the throw from shortstop Johnny Mazon was dropped at first. With
runners on second and third, Yankees third baseman B.J. Spencer fielded
Paul Ray Meese's hit, but hesitated as Salazar stayed at second and
Trujillo scored.
Those were the only runs of the game as a total of 25 batters struck
out.
The Yankees only hits of the game were infield singles by Steven Lewis
in the fifth and John Garcia's single in the sixth. The five other
times the Yankees made contact, the infield defense of Trujillo, Gutierrez
and Meese made the plays.
Trujillo had a pair of unassisted put outs at first, while Gutierrez
made a diving stop of a hit headed straight up the middle to hold
Garcia to a single, then made a force out on the next hit by Nolan
Chopito. Meese had the other put out on a hit by B.J. Spencer.
"Our infield has been really tight all year," Trujillo said.
"P.J., Paul Ray and Christopher are the heart of the team. Christopher
doens't let nothing get past first base."
Gutierrez finished the game with a pair of singles. Meese was 2-for-2
with an RBI.
Dodgers 5, Giants 4
Clean-up hitter John Tafoya hit an RBI single to knock in Zach Shank
to give the Dodgers a short-lived 1-0 lead in the first inning, then
the two paired up to complete a late-game rally to keep the Dodgers
alive.
The Giants overtook the Dodgers with a three-run second inning with
their bottom half of the batting order.
Trey Jim and Nicholas Menapace doubled to tie the game. Then Brandon
James put the Giants ahead with an RBI hit that scored Menapace. Kyle
Jones knocked a double into right centerfield to score James and the
Giants led 3-1.
The Dodgers tied the game in the fourth. Tafoya recorded a double
with a hit that got past the shortstop. First baseman Jessie Garcia
then recorded an in-the-park homerun with a hit that got past the
centerfielder. The throw to third was missed allowing Garcia to score
the tying run.
The score remained tied at 3-3 until the sixth.
Menapace singled to lead off the inning, then scored on a triple by
Brandon James that went through the leftfielder's legs. However, James
was left stranded at third as the next two batters struck out.
Shank led off for the Dodgers with a triple down the rightfield foul
line. He scored the tying run on Tafoya's RBI single.
Garcia hit the winning RBI into rightfield with Tafoya sliding under
the tag at home plate to end the game.
Tafoya led all hitters going 3-for-3 with 2 RBIs. Shank and Garcia
were each 2-for-3 with Garcia knocking in three runs.
James and Menapace were each 2-for-3 for the Giants.
| Top |
Mets still alive after drawing bye
N.M. AABC State Tournaments Yankees, Braves eliminated
from Willie Mays field
Abelita Rose Freeland
Staff Sports Writer
LAS CRUCES — Despite losing 11-2 to Las Cruces, the Gallup Mets
drew a bye past the elimination round of the N.M. AABC Pee Wee Reese
State Tournament Thursday.
first loss in both regular and post-season play the Gallup Mets drew
a bye pass the elimination round of the PeeWee Reese division of the
NMAABC tournament at Raymond M. Paz Sports Complex in Las Cruces on
Thursday night.
Gallup had lost to the Las Cruces Twins at the Raymond M. Paz Sports
Complex, but then drew the bye according to league rule 11.
The Mets will play tonight at 8 p.m. against a team that they have
not yet faced. The two undefeated Las Cruces teams, the Sparkplugs
and the Twins, will have to play each other and the Durango Red Wings
and Renegades will play this afternoon...
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Rockies still in winner's bracket
James Staley
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Only one local team, the Gallup Rockies, remains in
the winner's bracket of the Roberto Clemente Machine Pitch state tournament
after the second day of action Thursday at Veteran's Memorial Complex.
Twelve was the number of the cloudy night as both games were decided
by a dozen runs. A rambunctious crowd watched the Rockies hand the
Espanola Diamondbacks their first loss of the season, 18-6, and the
Las Cruces Cardinals rip the Grants Pirates, 17-5.
Espanola fell to 19-1 on the season and will play the Gallup Diamondbacks
today at 3 p.m. The 14-1 Rockies will battle the Las Cruces Cardinals
tonight at 6. Grants drops to the loser's bracket to face Gallup Dodgers
at 1 p.m. The Clemente tournament is a double elimination event...
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Boy killed when roof collapses
TEEC NOS POS, Ariz. (AP) — The roof of a Navajo shade house
collapsed Thursday, killing a 6-year-old boy and injuring two people
who were trying to dismantling it, officials said.
"(The boy) was unconscious. He was not breathing at the scene,"
said Lt. Clarence Hawthorne of the Navajo Police Department in Shiprock,
N.M.
Hawthorne said the boy's father had performed CPR on the boy before
the ambulance arrived.
The extent of the other two victims' injuries wasn't immediately
known, but they were taken to a hospital in Shiprock, about 25 miles
to the east...
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Milan board decides to keep Tindall
Tom Purdom
Staff Writer
MILAN — The Milan Board of Trustees on Thursday retained Ted
Tindall following an hour and a half of debate about the village
code enforcement officer.
Two petitions one demanding Tindall's firing and the other petitioning
for a re-evaluation of the code enforcement officer job containing
an alleged 504 names had little or no impact on most of the trustees
and none at all on the village planning and zoning commission.
At the meeting, several citizens condemned Tindall for his methods
of delivering citations to citizens for violating village codes,
but several officials defended him.
Trustee Tom Ortega started off the meeting by saying he wanted to
see Tindall fired and intended to make a motion to get rid of him...
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Nageezi opens teen club
Larry Di Giovanni
Staff Writer
NAGEEZI — Parents, toddlers, adolescents and teens, about 200
strong, came out Thursday in jeans, shorts and even a granddaddy-toted
Navajo cradleboard to celebrate the grand opening of the Nageezi
Boys and Girls Club.
Five Boys and Girls Clubs are scheduled to open on the Navajo Nation
this year, with Kayenta, Ariz., the first on July 2.
Nageezi becomes the first, however, to host a grand opening celebration.
Kayenta will soon have its grand opening, followed by Boys and Girls
Club centers in Crownpoint, Fort Defiance, Ariz., and Chinle, Ariz.
Another five clubs are scheduled to open next year, and then another
three, bringing to 13 the total number of clubs involving a tribe-Boys
and Girls Clubs of America partnership that began one year ago...
Residents respond to clean-up call
Bill Donovan
Staff Writer
GALLUP — Gallup residents with messy yards are responding to
pleas by the city to clean up their property, city officials said
Thursday.
That and several other subjects including displeasure over a recent
Independent editorial, a possible new home for the Gallup Public
Library and response to the selection of a new police chief were
discussed during the regular Thursday press conference held by City
Manager David Ruiz.
Sitting in on the press conference this week was City Councilor
Charlie Chavez.
City officials had expressed some anxiety on how Gallup residents
would respond to letters that the city began sending out last month
to residents whose yards were unkempt or who had junk cars on their
property...
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Deaths
Tom Phillip Small
GRANTS — Services for Tom Small, 83, will be held at 10 a.m.
Saturday, July 14, at Grants Church of Christ. Matthew Killough will
officiate.
Small died July 11 in Grants. He was born Nov. 6, 1918, in San Mateo.
Small graduated from Grants Union High. He served aboard the USS Essex
during World War II, with honorable discharge.
Survivors include his wife, Elizabeth Small; daughters, Virginia,
Pamela, Jewel and Susan; brothers, Dewight, Cliff, Max and Bobby;
sisters, Mabel, Cleo and Annie Ruth; 13 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Otto John Henley
GRANTS — Otto John Henley, 71, died July 10 in Grants. He was
born July 7, 1930, in Detroit, Mich.
He was a member of the VFW and the Grants-Milan B.P.O.E. He served
in the the USAF.
Survivors include his wife, Victoria L. Tantillo Henley of Grants;
sons, Less Smith, Joseph Henley, Jonathan Henley, Jeffery Henley,
Lawrence Henley and Omar Henley; daughters, Joy Yoder, Jaquline Bassett,
Maria Rivera, Elaine Larson and Jenifer Henley; mother, Harriett Henley
of South Lyons, Mich.; sister, Betty; 21 grandchildren and one great-granchild.
John Payton Sr.
MARIANO LAKE — Services for John Payton Sr., 84, will be announced
at a later date.
Payton died July 11 in Phoenix. He was born Jan. 4, 1917, in Mariano
Lake into the Start of the Red Streak People Clan for
the Salt People Clan.
Rollie Mortuary is in charge of arrangements.
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