1st Grader Recognized for Integrity

On Friday May 2nd, the Colton Fire Department made a visit to Cooley Ranch Elementary School in Colton. They were there to recognize and give a “Certificate of Appreciation” and special thank you to 1st grader Isabella Hunter in front of her family and fellow classmates. A few weeks ago in April, a radio was stolen from a fire command vehicle while fire personnel were fighting a Colton fire. The person who stole the radio fled on foot before officials realized the radio was missing, escaping unidentified. The estimated value of the stolen radio, including the cost of reprogramming a new radio, is estimated at $1,200. At the Cottonwood Ranch apartment complex in Colton, 7-year-old Isabella Hunter saw some neighborhood kids playing with the radio. The young lady later discovered the radio under some bushes and handed it to her parents, letting them know that she would like to return it to its rightful owners. The Hunter family began their mission of visiting the various fire stations throughout Colton; the first fire station they went to happened to be Station 4. The firefighters shortly discovered it was the radio that was stolen from them, and shared that there were extremely grateful and impressed by the young girl's decision and decided that they wanted to recognize her honest character. The fire department initially planned to visit her home and present the award to her in front of her family, but Isabella’s mother, Briana Hunter, suggested the fire department visit Cooley Ranch Elementary School. Battalion Chief Kevin Valentine from Station 211 at the administration headquarters, Station 214 Captain David Santos along with Engineer Shaun Tarcon and Fire Fighter Paramedic Steve Sands visited the school with their fire truck and presented the certificate to Isabella in front of her fellow classmates. Valentin shared about the Hunter family and their deed, “Out of pure honesty and good citizenship, they brought it in and handed it in, it was really amazing. We wanted to recognize Isabella in front of all her classmates and the wonderful job she did. It’s touching for me to have such a young member of the community want to turn in something of value to the rightful owner.” Briana said, “I’m proud of her, she’s such a good kid, some of the other kids can be cool and they can say mean things and she’s just a good girl and has good intentions.” Her father, Carlos Hunter added, “We’re just proud, she always does the right thing without us telling her.” Mother Briana began tearing up as the certificate was given by Battalion Chief Valentin to her daughter sharing, “It’s so cool they did this at the school, I thought it’d be a good opportunity for the kids to see the firefighters.” By taking Isabella’s example, it would be an ideal moment to teach the kids about citizenship. The kids were thrilled to see the firefighters and to see a fire engine up close. Isabella’s class was very proud to see their class mate exemplify the characteristics of being a good citizen and Isabella said she was very proud to receive the award. The firefighters took the kids in small groups and showed them the inner workings of their fire truck, sharing facts about what they do and answering any questions the students had. The students shared that they thought it was cool that the air tank holds 30 minutes worth of oxygen to sustain the fire fighters if they have to go into a smoky area. Melinda Gerome, Isabella's 1st grade teacher at Cooley Ranch Elementary School said, “We talk about citizenship in the community and learn about community workers in the classroom and what it means to be a good citizen in the 1st grade, in the school and in the community and how they can put what we teach in the classroom into the real world. We go over different scenarios in the classroom about what a good citizen does and it makes me proud as a teacher to see her demonstrating this outside the classroom. Her classmates were proud of her too and gave her high fives and hugs because they know she did a good thing.” She shared it was a good way to get the community involved with the school and for the pure fascination of a fire truck coming in, and it builds the relationship between the school and the community. Gerome shared, “She applied what we learned in the classroom and demonstrated it in a real life example and it’s inspirational.”