Windsor resident Alim Charaniya, with the help of community donations, raised $2,500 to purchase 40 boxes of pizza, and a copious amount of food and drinks for firefighters and police officers in Windsor, Healdsburg and Geyserville.
Charaniya, a 2015 Windsor High School graduate, said he felt like he wanted to do something to help the first responders who are out on the front lines working arduously long shifts.
“I feel like I have a good voice in the community… so I sent out a message on Facebook and raised a little over $2,500 in one day,” Charaniya said.
Charaniya works from home, but is also active in the Windsor community and helps teach coding for kids.
Once he started receiving donations and as funds started pouring in from Venmo he and his mom went on a trip to Costco to pick up groceries such as power bars, energy drinks and water, anything that would help get some energy and nutrition to crews working in the field.
“We went to Costco and got Gatorade, power bars and all types of energy bars and dropped it off at eight different stations,” he said.
Overall, Charaniya made trips to the Sonoma County Fire District station in Windsor, the Windsor Police Department, the Healdsburg Fire Department, the Healdsburg Police Department and to some fire stations in Geyserville.
He also purchased 40 boxes of pizza and distributed them to the first responders at the stations. In one instance, he drove out to several of the road closure sights where Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies and mutual aid police officers were patrolling near the mandatory evacuation zones and handed them a whole pizza to enjoy.
“We had heard that some police officers had been on (the same shift) for five or six hours… they were super excited,” Charaniya said of the officers receiving food. He said the firefighters were thrilled to receive food as well.
“Their reactions were priceless,” Charaniya said.
He said he still has about $1,100 leftover so he plans on continuing to coordinate lunches and meals for first responders in both Windsor and Healdsburg.
“This wouldn’t have happened without the community. The average donation was very generous, $40 or more,” Charaniya said. “I was really impressed.
