Jereen Santiago never slows down. As a pharmacist and mother, she works a full-time job filling prescriptions and helping customers and then spends the rest of her day carting her three kids to drum lessons, dance class and family dinners. Yet, she still carves time out of her busy schedule to volunteer at Hope for Firefighters.
For the past four years, Jereen has assisted staff at the event’s Firefighter Photo Booth, which helps raise money for the Widows, Orphans & Disabled Firemen’s Fund. The booth offers the chance for attendees to pose with firefighters for fun (and sometimes hilarious) photos.
Eric Santiago, Jereen’s husband and an employee of the Los Angeles Firemen’s Relief Association, enjoys working with her at the booth. “She has fun with it,” he said. She’s such a veteran, in fact, that she keeps things in the booth running smoothly by moving from task to task to make the customers’ experience as enjoyable as possible.
Her generosity with her time doesn’t end with snapping firefighters poses. In addition to helping at Hope, she participates in community outreach and immunization drives through her work. And after all that, she still squeezes in time to travel.
The Santiagos plan trips near and far, often meeting other family members at the destination. “It’s important to us to spend quality time exploring as a family,” Eric said. “Jereen manages our finances well so that we can go to lots of different places and expose our kids to different experiences.”
As their kids get older, Jereen and Eric plan to start working educational trips into their schedule. In the meantime, Jereen will keep running from her kids’ lessons to the pharmacy to the market and anywhere else she’s needed, including the photo booth at next year’s Hope for Firefighters.
By David Vienna