Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation

During National Burn Awareness Week last year, we asked you to share your Burniversary. In honor of this year’s NBAW, we’d like for you to share again! Please tell us your Burniversary and if you would like, a little about your recovery journey. #aarbf #burniversary #burnsurvivor #nbaw #nbaw2021

Burn Centers and fire departments throughout California are seeing an increased number of patients from the unhoused communities this winter. The Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation, along with The Midnight Mission in Los Angeles, have partnered together to launch the Safe & Warm campaign, to reduce the number of burn injuries and fires among this community. The goal of Safe & Warm is to provide prevention education specific to their unique needs. This will be accomplished through... handout materials and community outreach. The most common injuries are caused by candles in tents or flame by butane or propane from cooking. A downloaded copy of this flyer is available on our website at https://www.aarbf.org/burn-prevention/safe-and-warm/ To obtain additional resource information in your area, please dial 2-1-1. The 2-1-1 network of providers celebrated 2/11 Day (Thursday, February 11) during National Burn Awareness Week! We were excited to learn 2021 marks 211 LA’s 16th year as the 2-1-1 services provider for Los Angeles County residents and their 40th anniversary as the region’s central information gateway (as INFOLINE of Los Angeles). Congratulations 211 LA! #aarbf #burnprevention #fise #nbaw #nbaw2021

Lea Elder grew up in a normal middle-class home with her younger brother, Michael Knopf. Her father was a former Air National Guard Sergeant, while her busy mother worked two nursing jobs. The family of four was living at Moffett Field in Mountain View, CA, when Lea was 13 years old. They were a busy, tight-knit family with two athletic and energetic children. It was Labor Day, September 4, 2000 --- the Knopf family settled in for the evening after a day of barbequing and fun.... Lea’s mother Tess headed off to her evening shift as a dialysis nurse. As the family turned in for the night, they threw a load of laundry into the dryer. An hour and a half after falling asleep, Lea woke up to the sound of her younger brother Michael screaming. A spark from the dryer had ignited a fire in the Knopf home. Unfortunately, the smoke alarm batteries had been removed because they had been chirping at night. Lea could see flames in the hallway and immediately ran to her window and screamed, FIRE! as loud as she could. Her neighbors ran to her aid. Before Lea leapt from her second story window, she sustained burns over much of her body. Brave neighbors tried to put out the fire with garden hoses with only wet rags to protect their faces. This was only the beginning of Lea’s burn survivor story and her journey to recovery with the help of the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation. We will be releasing a commemorative 50th Anniversary coffee table book later this year highlighting 50 stories, similar to this, from our burn community. Be sure to follow our social media each Monday throughout 2021 to see excerpts of the stories that have been inspiring us for the last 50 years! Lea was the recipient of AARBF’s Ruch Family Circle Award in 2020! Learn more about Lea here: https://www.aarbf.org/awards/2020-ruch-family-circle-award/. #aarbf50stories #aarbf50 #aarbf #burnsurvivor #nbaw #nbaw2021

AARBF is excited to work with Semme and his song, Do Dat/Stop, Drop and Roll! Semme Jenkins @albinosemme #dodat #sdrchallenge #stopdropandroll ........... Celebrating 50 Years of @aarbf ... The entire team at @aarbf have been nothing but supportive and welcoming to me since we got in contact back in November. We are proud to be partnering with them on our song Do Dat (TikTok Resume) in hopes to reach 5 million videos created! We are currently at 2.5 million so we are already half way there! Calling on you guys to continue helping spreading awareness on Stop Drop & Roll, and what it means to save lives and prepare the future generation to be safe in time of danger. I want to thank everyone who has been a part so far, and who has supported and continues to support with their talents and contributions. All love! Semme

Have you seen Lucky the Fire Burping Dragon? Lucky the Fire Burping Dragon is a puppet show developed to teach children, under the age of 5, about fire and burn prevention education. It’s fun to follow Lucky as he learns about fire and burn safety from his friend, Firefighter Dave. This video is available on our website at https://www.aarbf.org/burn-p/lucky-the-fire-burping-dragon/. While you’re on our site, be sure to check out all of the prevention materials available. We have something for everyone! #aarbf #nbaw #nbaw2021 #burnprevention #aarbfresources

Thankful Thursday continues with our Virtual Retreat! We would like to extend our deepest thanks to our amazing volunteers who have all assisted in creating our LARGEST Adult Burn Survivor Retreat we have ever had. There were 45 burn survivors registered!! This would not have been possible without the help of our lead volunteer Teague, and our other outstanding volunteers; Cindy, James, Lea, Penny, Dana, and Jennifer. We were able to send out boxes full of goodies to all who ...registered. This took many hours and was not an easy task with so many to assemble. But it seamlessly came together with the help of Daniel, Pradnya, Kelly and Pete. One of our participants had this to share, "Being a burn survivor has taught me resilience, tenacity, to be thankful each day--even the hard ones--and cherish every breath while I still can. #aarbf #aarbfsurvivor #aarbfretreat #burnsurvivor #nbaw #nbaw2021 #thankfulthursday