SEPTEMBER 27, 2019, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE B1
KeizerCommunity
Couple, pooch honored as heroes
KEIZERTIMES.COM
By MATT RAWLINGS
Of the Keizertimes
The last thing Dan and
Linda Garcher were think-
ing about on the morning of
March 3rd was themselves,
which is why Keizer Fire Dis-
trict felt the need to properly
honor them six months later.
At the KFD board meet-
ing on Tuesday, Sept. 17, Dan
and Linda, as well as their dog,
Tobias, were presented with
the Bob Wickman Award For
Heroism in Saving The Life
of Another, for their actions
during a fi re that took place
at the Rainbow Gardens Mo-
bile Village.
“Risking life and limb and
their own safety, they rushed
to help their neighbors in a
time of crisis,” said Keizer Fire
Chief Jeff Cowan during the
presentation.
Dan and Linda were both
emotional upon receiving the
award.
“To
tell
you the truth,
I was really
nervous, be-
cause it brings
eve r y t h i n g
back to the
surface. All the
thoughts and
the feelings.
But
when
they asked us,
we were very
honored. We
didn’t expect
it, it just kind
of came out
of the blue and we kind ap-
preciate it a lot.” Linda said.
“I don’t recall even thinking
about to be honest. It was our
neighbor. We had to go help.”
It was just after 5 a.m. on
Sunday, March 3, when Dan
and Linda were awoken by
loud barking by Tobias. Af-
ter getting up to see what
the commotion was about,
they saw that their neighbor’s
home was engulfed in fl ames.
Immediately, Dan and Lin-
da ran over to the house to at-
tempt to save their neighbors,
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
A devastating fatal fi re struck the Rainbow Garden Mobile
Village in March.
Mate and Maria Mezei.
“(Tobias) knew that some-
thing was up,” Linda said. “It
was just one of those things
where you react.”
While the couple was un-
able to get Mate out of the
burning building, Jeff and Lin-
da were able to save Maria’s
life by getting
her out of the
house.
Linda was
able to get
out of the fi re
relatively un-
scathed, but
Dan and Ma-
ria weren’t as
fortunate.
Dan was
burned bad-
ly all over his
back, shoul-
ders head and
arms and both
he and Maria were rushed to
the hospital.
“With the adrenaline go-
ing, you don’t really think
about it, but by the time I got
out, I started feeling it. I knew
I had gotten cooked pretty
good,” said Dan.
Dan and Maria each spent
nearly three weeks in the
hospital. Even after return-
ing home, Dan still had to be
treated for his wounds. But all
things considered, Dan still
feels pretty lucky.
“The healing process that
have you go through was
pretty fast and easy. There are
a lot of people who aren’t as
fortunate,” Dan said.
Though this experience
has been incredibly traumatic,
it has given Dan a new lease
on life.
“It gives you a lot more
humility every day. Now, I’m
happy to get up and go to
work,” Dan said
Dan and Linda have also
become a lot closer with Ma-
ria, who now lives with her
daughter, Imola.
“The unity since then has
been amazing. We see each
other and talk to each other as
much as we can,” Linda said.
People
at
Rainbow
Dan and Linda Garcher with
plaques presented to them
by the Keizer Fire District for
their heroic efforts to save
the lives of their neighbors.
KEIZERTIMES/Matt Rawlings
Gardens Park rallied around
the Garcher’s upon Dan’s
return home, showering the
couple with hot meals and
well wishes, as well as fi nding
a newfound respect for their
brave neighbors.
“Dan was dressed in shorts
running into a burning build-
ing with total disregard to
what is happening around
him. Dan’s humility and hard
work and shows the type of
person that he is. He’s the
biggest man I’ve seen in my
life,” Rainbow Gardens Park
owner Ron Anderson said.
“That showed the type of
people Dan and Linda are.
They had the intestinal forti-
tude to go in there. They are
true heroes.”
Girl’s Night
A
B
The Keizer Network of Women
(KNOW), a Keizer Chamber of Com-
merce group, held its annual Percey Pres-
ents fund raising event on Thursday, Sept.
19, at the Keizer Civic Center.
Attendees got into the spirit of the
event’s theme, Girl’s Night In-Pajama Par-
ty, including Fay de Meyer’s Teddy Bear
slippers (above).
Proceeds will benefi t KNOW’s Christ-
mas Giving Basket program aiding in-need
families with food and gifts.
Caitlyn Davis and Brenda Wright both
won a raffl e for a Coach bag while Marsha
Stallings won a Michael Kors bag.
Keizer-area school teachers were hon-
ored with dinner and tables sponsored by
local businesses.
C
D
KEIZERTIMES/Lyndon A. Zaitz
A: McVay’s PJ Party (from left): Barbie Anderson, April McVay, Holly Bedingfi eld, Michelle McElhaney, Donna Murray, Ruth
Weathers, Stephanie Eakin and Lori Nepstad. B: The team from Willamette Valley Bank (from left) Bailey Payne, Crystal Tyndall,
Rebecca Downes, Jane Lowery, Mandi Stephens, Kennedy Traeger, Shannon Shore and Kourtnee Butler. C: Crystal Posterick (left)
and Chrystal Patson. D: Three city councilors (from left) Marlene Parsons, Laura Reid and Elizabeth Smith with Mayor Cathy Clark.
YOUTH HOMELESSNESS
No stranger to change
Young woman seeks stability
after tumultuous home life
BY LAUREN MURPHY
Of the Keizertimes
Editor’s note: the name of the
individual in this story has been
changed to protect their identity.
There are many reasons
teens become homeless: un-
healthy family dynamics, ill-
ness that makes it diffi cult or
impossible to work, and in-
ability to access resources are
just a few. All three directly
impacted Grace on her jour-
ney to the shelter where she
is staying.
She moved around a
lot growing up, so she’s no
stranger to change.
She was kicked
out at age 19 for
coming out to
her parents, “Ida-
ho (where she was
living at the time)
is one of the worst
places for LGBTQ+
people,” she said.
“So is eastern Wash-
ington, I lived there,
too.”
“They basically
told me you can either live
a normal life or you can just
leave,” she said.
“Being attracted to the
same sex shouldn’t be a not
normal thing,” Grace said
with a large sigh, as if it were
a battle she was tired of fi ght-
ing.
And she knows a thing
or two about fi ghting as she
struggles with: lupus, anxiety
and potentially narcolepsy ev-
eryday.
“It’s really hard to keep a
job when you have anxiety,”
she said.
Before coming to a Salem
shelter, she was living in Sil-
verton with two roommates.
She was doing well, and
working a stable job, when
the joint pain started.
“At fi rst we thought it
was arthritis,” she said, which
would have been odd con-
sidering she’s only 21. After a
stay in the emergency room
she got her diagnosis – lupus,
which is an infl ammatory dis-
ease where the immune sys-
tem attacks its own tissue. It is
treatable, but not curable.
“They wanted to put me
on amino suppressants but
they’re like $10,000-$15,000
a year, I can’t afford that,” she
said.
Because of her pain and
condition she was unable to
work. When her roommates
moved out she was homeless
once more.
“I was living in my car,”
she said.
She is planning to move
up to Seattle with her partner,
who is working on getting an
apartment.
She and her partner met
on Discord and have known
each other for about two
years.
Discord is an application
that is designed for commu-
nication between members of
the video gaming community.
Grace wants to be an ani-
mator and is already exercis-
ing her creativity.
“Technically, I’m a pub-
lished author,” she said. Her
work was published after she
won a national poetry com-
petition.
She is also working on her
fi rst novel, based off her nar-
colepsy-induced nightmares.
She wrote it in the science
fi ction-horror genre.
The novel took her eight
years to write, but for the last
three years she has had her
publisher, advisor and print-
ing company lined up.
Writing a novel is an im-
pressive feat in and of itself,
but Grace can only type
about 36 words a minute due
to her medical issues.
“Typing it down is a long
process; especially when your
hands don’t work so well,” she
said.