We’re back for Year 3! Stachefest raises funds for local firefighter families battling cancer. In 2022, 805 firefighters came together to participate from: Ventura City, Oxnard, Ventura County, Carpinteria-Summerland, Santa Barbara City, and Santa Barbara County. Don’t miss this year’s event, at Topa Topa Brewing Co. on December 1ST in Ventura! Register today for the chance to win Grand Stacheion!
Our first recipient this year is 2 1/2 year old Milán Miranda who’s fighting Leukemia. His father is an Alhambra Firefighter who lives in Ventura County. Milán is an energetic, joyous two and a half year old who was recently diagnosed with high risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Despite intensive chemotherapy and frequent hospital visits, Milán continues to be quick to laugh, ready to dance to his favorite songs, and often bolts outside to explore tactilely. An avid reader, he loves learning new skills and is currently enthralled with shapes, numbers, letters, colors… and of course, fire and garbage trucks! Milán is also idolized by his six month old brother Elijah, who has been his constant companion throughout. Though his road to remission will be over four years, and fraught with the unknown, Milán’s brave spirit will be unwavering. He will beat this insidious disease.
In March of this year, both Jolie and Josh signed up for Santa Barbara County Local 2046’s offer for a preventative full body scan which found a large mass in Jolie’s neck. The doctor providing the results insisted she follow up immediately with her Doctor and Jolie jokingly attributed the symptoms to “Motherhood, aging and bad sleep”. A few months later, an ultrasound confirmed two large 3.5 cm nodules and several small on both sides of her thyroid and in late August a fine needle biopsy confirmed Papillary Thyroid Cancer. Josh was on the Happy Camp Complex Fire and rushed home to be with his family to start preparing for next steps. Finding the right doctor for surgery was tricky and ultimately Jolie was lucky to get an appointment with UCLA’s top Neck surgeon and had a complete thyroidectomy on October 30th and was hospitalized for 4 days. A fun fact about Thyroid Cancer is a quick google search will tell you it’s the “best cancer” to have. ALL cancer families will tell you, there is no good cancer and the fact is Jolie will be undergoing radiation treatment, surveillance and medication for the long foreseeable future although very hopeful for a positive outcome. The Cazier’s are a family of 5 and have three kids- Marlie 16, Harper 14 and Kai 12. Jolie is their rock and spends her days taking care of her crew and the community. Josh has been with Santa Barbara County Fire since 2005. The outpouring of love and support is very humbling and the Cazier’s are very grateful during this time of uncertainty.
Joel Hanson has been with Ventura County Fire Department for 19 years and has been part of the wild land division, dozer cadre, academy training and is currently an engineer on truck 35. Joel recently visited his doctor in September to have several moles on his body checked out. The doctor removed 7 and biopsied a mole on his chest which was particularly odd. After getting it biopsied they determined it was spitzpid mole that turneed into malignant melanoma. Doctors said it was “bad luck of the draw” because cancer does not run in the family and Joel is always covered up in the sun. The following month, in October, Joel went in for an aggressive surgery to have the mole and tissue down to the pectoral muscle along with 2 lymph nodes removed. We were praying that the cancer had not spread to his lymph nodes and chances seemed high, but yet again, results showed that it was in his lymph nodes which brought him to stage 3. We recently met with the oncologist in November and learning all we can about treatment options. Joel will begin immunotherapy very soon and doctor says it’ll be once a month treatments for at least a year, possibly at Cedar-Sinai on a trial medication. Although the future ahead is unknown, Joel and his family continue to stay positive and…. We are beyond grateful for The love and support from our fire family and friends.
