Community

Marin Fire Department Donates Ambulance to Haiti.

Published

6 years ago

October 24, 2019

A dinner was held on Oct. 19 in appreciation for the Ross Valley Paramedic Authority — which recently donated a retired ambulance to be used in Haiti for emergency care. The donation came as a collaboration with several other Marin County Fire Departments .

The dinner was held at The Caribbean Spices, a Haitian restaurant on 819 4th Street in San Rafael. Jim Thelusma, a musician who lives in Marin, hosted the event and performed the music.

For six months, Thelusma met and planned with the Marin Central Fire Department — which voted unanimously to donate one of their fully loaded ambulances to Haiti.

Two other people who were influential in obtaining the ambulance are Sophis Dorsainvil, a resident of Oakland and manager of SophisMusic, and Claude Joseph, Ph.D., visiting assistant professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut. Joseph is also the founder of Those Angels, Inc., whose mission is “to build schools and to support the educational, cultural and social development of Haitian communities in Haiti and in the U.S.”

From left, Claude Joseph, Matt Cobb, Sophis Dorsainvil, and Jim Thelusma. Photo by Godfrey Lee.

Matthew Cobb, Battalion Chief of the Central Marin Fire Dept. in Corte Madera, accepted a plaque appreciating the Ross Valley Paramedic Authority for their outstanding contribution for hope for Haiti 2019.

The ambulance was on display in front of the restaurant, and everyone attending the dinner took photos in front of it. Later on that night, the ambulance was taken to be stored in San Francisco for two month, while it awaits to be airlifted to Haiti by the United States Air Force .

Supporting partners include Project Reaching Hand, thoseangels.org and #Getdown4haiti. – with Noël Peterson-Luster, Chiraz Zapf, Shell X Jiang, and 19 others at Kentfield Fire Department Polling Place.

For more information and to donate to the ambulance, go to thoseangels.org

Godfrey Lee

Posts by Godfrey Lee

Up Next

COMMENTARY: In Defense of Fair Investigative Journalism

Don't Miss

Community Remembers Local Youth

Godfrey Lee

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of July 2- 8, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 2 – 8, 2025

Published

2 days ago

July 7, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

#NNPA BlackPress

Trump Set to Sign Largest Cut to Medicaid After a Marathon Protest Speech by Leader Jeffries

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S.

Published

6 days ago

July 3, 2025

Oakland Post

By Lauren Burke

By a vote of 218 to 214, the GOP-controlled U.S. House passed President Trump’s massive budget and spending bill that will add $3.5 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). The bill also represents the biggest cut in Medicare in history and is a threat to the health care coverage of over 15 million people. The spending in Trump’s signature legislation also opens the door to a second era of over-incarceration in the U.S. With $175 billion allocated in spending for immigration enforcement, the money for more police officers eclipsed the 2026 budget for the U.S. Marines, which is $57 billion. Almost all of the policy focus from the Trump Administration has focused on deporting immigrants of color from Mexico and Haiti.

The vote occurred as members were pressed to complete their work before the arbitrary deadline of the July 4 holiday set by President Trump. It also occurred after Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries took the House floor for over 8 hours in protest. Leader Jeffries broke the record in the U.S. House for the longest floor speech in history on the House floor. The Senate passed the bill days before and was tied at 50-50, with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski saying that, “my hope is that the House is gonna look at this and recognize that we’re not there yet.” There were no changes made to the Senate bill by the House. A series of overnight phone calls to Republicans voting against, not changes, was what won over enough Republicans to pass the legislation, even though it adds trillions to the debt. The Trump spending bill also cuts money to Pell grants.

“The Big Ugly Bill steals food out of the hands of starving children, steals medicine from the cabinets of cancer patients, and equips ICE with more funding and more weapons of war than the United States Marine Corps. Is there any question of who those agents will be going to war for, or who they will be going to war against? Beyond these sadistic provisions, Republicans just voted nearly unanimously to close urban and rural hospitals, cripple the child tax credit, and to top it all off, add $3.3 trillion to the ticking time bomb that is the federal deficit – all from a party that embarrassingly pretends to stand for fiscal responsibility and lowering costs,” wrote Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY) in a statement on July 3.

“The Congressional Budget Office predicts that 17 million people will lose their health insurance, including over 322,000 Virginians. It will make college less affordable. Three million people will lose access to food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). And up to 16 million students could lose access to free school meals. The Republican bill does all of this to fund tax breaks for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations,” wrote Education and Workforce Committee ranking member Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) in a statement. The bill’s passage has prompted Democrats to start thinking about 2026 and the next election cycle. With the margins of victory in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate being so narrow, many are convinced that the balance of power and the question of millions being able to enjoy health care come down to only several thousand votes in congressional elections. But currently, Republicans controlled by the MAGA movement control all three branches of government. That reality was never made more stark and more clear than the last seven days of activity in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate.