FEATURES

from The Foothills Focus - Zone 1 - 12.29.2021

by Times Media Group

BUSINESS

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Daisy Mountain Fire�ighters makes ‘a big difference’ for Valleywise kids

BY ALLISON BROWN

Foothills Focus Staff Writer

Daisy Mountain Firefighters Charities collected and donated hundreds of toys to the Valleywise Health Medical Center for children who have experienced painful or traumatic events on Tuesday, Dec. 21.

Ryan Potter, organizer of the Daisy Mountain Charity toy drive, said this has been an annual tradition for the charity organization for about 14 years. Daisy Mountain Firefighter Charities is a nonprofit organization that helps local families in times of need. The charity is composed of firefighters and their family and friends who donate their time, money and resources to help community members.

“I can’t tell you how many were donated, because at some point it just becomes way too many to count. But it has been an absolute record year for us. I think we filled a 24-foot box truck all the way to the ceiling with toys.”

Potter said this was a record-breaking year in terms of how many toys were donated. He said the charity partnered with local businesses to collect toys from Thanksgiving to mid-December, and the community really came through for the kids. He added that they are extremely grateful to the businesses, volunteers and community members who helped make this possible and said it was “touching” to see people come together for the cause.

Valleywise Health Medical Center was chosen because, as a smaller hospital, it often doesn’t get as much community support as some of the big hospitals in the Valley.

“A lot of people, when they’re looking to donate to hospitalized children, they think of the children’s hospitals that we have in town,” said Kyla Brown, child life coordinator for Valleywise Health Medical Center. “So, it’s definitely nice to have people who recognize the need and really reach out to support the patients that we serve.”

Members of the charity, staff at the hospital, volunteers, and even Santa himself showed up to help unload the truck. Brown said with the abundance of toys donated, the hospital should have enough to last year-round. While the toys are given out around Christmastime, the hospital also uses them in situations that are potentially traumatic for kids.

“Anytime the patient has painful or invasive procedures like IV starts, blood draws, things like that, we will actually provide them with a toy after that,” Brown explained. “That really helps to make the hospital look more

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positive. So that memory of something that was maybe scary or uncomfortable is now replaced with something pleasant and happy.”

She said that, due to COVID-19, kids aren’t really able to use the playroom, so having bedside toys available is more important than ever, especially when kids sometimes have to stay in the burn unit for weeks or even months at a time. In addition, Brown said toys are just a great way for kids to learn and grow. Brown said these donations mean so much to the kids as well as the staff that get to hand them out. She echoed Potter’s statement that this year’s donation was the largest they have ever received. “We are so appreciative to everybody who donated, who volunteered, who provided, and just for people who are positively impacting the community and specifically those that serve here at Valleywise,” she said. “It’s so great for the employees here to be able to see the smiles they help to create, and that’s really meaningful. It’s making a big difference in the pediatric patients’ lives in a really positive way.”

Both Ryan Potter, organizer of the Daisy Mountain Charity toy drive, and Kyla Brown, child life coordinator for Valleywise Health Medical Center, said this was the largest donation they have ever received. (Submitted photo)

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FEATURES THE FOOTHILLS FOCUS 2022: Time for a Personal Reset? RIGOR, RELEVANCE & RELATIONSHIPSSMALL CLASS SIZES! | THEFOOTHILLSFOCUS.COM | DECEMBER 29, 2021 RIGOR, RELEVANCE & RELATIONSHIPSSMALL CLASS SIZES! RIGOR, RELEVANCE & RELATIONSHIPSSMALL CLASS SIZES!

CHURCH COMMUNITY CONNECTION Pastor Ed Delph

Foothills Focus Columnist

Pastor Bill Johnson says: “We need to remain childlike. Children don’t dream of being insigni�icant.” We need to be reminded of this during these crazy, nonsensical times. Children start off seeing life beautifully and innocently. But eventually, life gets to them, molds them, holds them, and hurts them. So often, temporary negatives become permanent negatives, and lifetimes are spent searching for significance in all the wrong places.

Recently, I found a short story my son, Matthew, wrote when he was about 10 years old. It illustrates how children don’t dream of being insigni�icant. The story is called “The Bass.” If you think �ishermen have big �ish stories, wait until you read Matt’s �ish story: “One day, I went �ishing with my dad at Big Daddy Lake. Now, this lake did not get its name from some old fogey. No, it has bass the size of the state of Alaska. Well, anyway, I was using a crankbait as big as my head, and I cast it about twenty feet. I reeled in the �ish. It was a little dinky bass.

While dad thought about how I caught it on my “hipper”-size crankbait, I cast my lure again toward a big rock. This rock was not a pebble. It was a huge, mega-size bone-crushing rock. Well, I started reeling it in, and I felt a nibble. WWWWAAAHHHH!!!! Dad! Matt! AAAHH! SPLASH!!! Blurb, Blurb.

Then I saw it. It was huge! It dragged me through the weeds and rocks. (The rock part kind of hurt.) Then I saw a tree, grabbed it, and I hung on for dear life. I started reeling the bass in. Finally, I got him close enough to grab him. Bad idea on my part. Weeeeeeeee! It was awesome. I saw the boat. I grabbed the boat and the �ish and climbed in.

I told dad to get the “weigher.” The bass weighed 600 pounds. Dad and I went back to the �ish dock, and I won the bass tournament. Then, we went home and sat down to think about how I did it. Dad is still acting a little weird. I think it damaged his brain thinking that I caught a bigger bass than him. The end.”

Well, you just looked through the eyes of Matthew, who has a big imagination and an even bigger positive attitude.

As Pastor Johnson said, children don’t dream of being insigni�icant, especially 10-year-old Matt. It does mental and emotional harm to us adults to hate, gripe, become wounded, bitter, cynical or lose our joy. It’s even worse to lose our childlike trust and perspective. Friedrich Nietzsche said, “He who �ights too long against dragons becomes a dragon himself.” The most brutal prison to escape can be one’s mind.

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he suggested that to enter the kingdom of God, we must become trusting like a child. Otherwise, complex adult issues like those mentioned will paralyze us. To the pure, everything is pure.

When truth, simplicity and purity come, dragon people can’t see good or God anymore. They lose trust in God, and they lose their perspective. God is there, but they can’t see God at work on their behalf.

Wise but trusting people see God in both the good and the bad. The mature Christ followers and people see God in pleasures and palaces and the barnyards and stables of life. When wise people follow a star and �ind a stable, they look for God in the stable and �ind Him. That takes seeing things the way God sees them by looking through the eyes of a child.

God chose to become a baby, not a “razzle, dazzle” form of a king, politician or entertainer. But, given time, that baby proved more potent than the whole Roman Empire. John Maxwell wrote about this truth from a writer penned many years ago. Read on:

“A century ago, men were following with bated breath the march of Napoleon and waiting feverishly for news of the war. And all the time, while in their own homes, babies were being born. But who could think about babies? Everyone was thinking about battles.

“In one year, there stole into the world a host of heroes. Gladstone was born in Liverpool, England, and Tennyson at Somersby. Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Massachusetts. The same day of that same year, Charles Darwin made his debut at Shrewsbury. Abraham Lincoln drew his first breath in Old Kentucky, and the birth of Felix Mendelssohn enriched music in Hamburg.

“But nobody was thinking about babies. Everybody was thinking about battles. Yet, which of the battles of 1809 mattered more than the babies born in 1809? When a wrong wants righting, or a truth wants teaching, or a continent wants opening, God sends a child to do it.”

So, what does “childlike” look like for us adults and teenagers?

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to �igure out everything on your own. Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go. God’s the one who will keep you on track. Don’t assume you know everything, Run to God, not from God.” Proverbs 3:5-7.

This 2022, birth the baby of a personal reset. Don’t allow current events to rob you of the awe and wonder of life. The year is new, why not you too.

Ed Delph is a noted author of 10 books, as well as a pastor, teacher, former business owner and speaker. Ed has traveled extensively, having been to more than 100 countries. He is president of NationStrategy, a nonpro�it organization involved in uplifting and transforming communities worldwide. For more information, see nationstrategy. com. Ed may be contacted at nationstrategy@cs.com.