News

Friday, May 25, 2012

Roosevelt School Awards Assembly Celebrates Both Student Achievement and Ana Vargas’ Life Saving Action

At the beginning of Roosevelt Elementary School’s 8:00 a.m. assembly today, City of Santa Barbara Division Chief/Operations Pat McElroy, along with Captain Gary Pitney, engineer Trevor Jones, and firefighter Ryan Ortiz were on hand for a special award ceremony. They were there to present an award to Roosevelt fourth grader Anastasia “Ana” Vargas.

Ana lives with her grandmother and on July 28, 2011, at 3:30 a.m., Ana went in to check on her grandmother and realized she wasn’t breathing. Ana, who was eight-years-old at the time, has an emergency contact list and immediately used it to contact a person on that list, who in turn called 911. Captain Gilbert Cash, engineer Eric Fairbank, and firefighter Isaac Siegel from Station 3/Sola Street responded and found Ana’s grandmother, Kathleen Ambrose, with no pulse and not breathing. Mrs. Ambrose, who was at today’s assembly said that a bad wire in her heart machine was the source of the problem. It took six months for her to recover from the incident.

Ana, a shy fourth grader, accepted the plaque from Chief McElroy. She then presented the firefighters with award certificates that she had made, thanking them for saving her grandmother's life. You are a hero." Ana’s certificates will be given to the team that responded that night as they were unavailable today.

Also at Roosevelt's final 2011-2012 awards assembly, more than 175 awards were distributed, recognizing students for their academic achievement, achievement in instrumental music, and behavior exemplifying the Character Counts trait of respect. The assembly was hosted by “Principal for a Day,” fourth-grader John Henry Schulz. John Henry served as principal for a day in recognition of laps he ran in the Rose Run jogathon. John Henry visited classrooms and asked students what they like best about Roosevelt in order to get ideas that can be considered for next year.