Ambulance Company Plans to Honor Garvey

Steve Garvey hasn’t swung at a pitch in anger in two seasons, but he is still getting awards for coming through in the clutch.

Southwest Ambulance Co. of San Diego plans to honor the former slugger for his role in pulling an unconscious 6-year-old girl from a swimming pool and reviving her with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

The incident happened May 6 at Garvey’s Del Mar Heights home during a joint birthday party for Garvey’s stepdaughter and the daughter of a San Diego physician.

While a dozen children were playing in the shallow end, Nichole Riegert was spotted floating face down in the deep end. Like many such swimming pool incidents, it happened quickly and silently, and, for an instant, the adults thought Nichole was only playing.

Garvey and business partner John Boggs dove into the water and lifted Nichole out of the pool. Garvey pried open the girl’s jaw, pushed on her stomach to force out the water, and then applied mouth-to-mouth resuscitation until she began breathing.

“She was unconscious and blue when Steve started working on her,” Boggs said. “Steve kept blowing into her mouth until she had kind of a spasm, coughed and started screaming.”

Catherine Whelan, Nichole’s teacher at Stella Maris Academy in La Jolla, said Nichole “was ashen, very clammy looking, very much like someone who had almost drowned. I’ve seen drowning victims, and it’s a look you don’t forget.”

Southwest Ambulance rushed Nichole to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, accompanied by Steve and Candace Garvey. The girl’s father, Mark Riegert, a Carlsbad contractor, was summoned from home by a police dispatcher.

“By the time I got to the hospital, I was crazy with fear,” Riegert said. “Steve put his arms around me and said, ‘She’s OK.’ ”

Even now, Nichole does not like to talk about the incident. “She starts crying whenever she’s asked about it,” said her father. “All she remembers is waking up outside the pool and having Steve Garvey looking down on her.”

Southwest Vice President Dick Caldwell said the company wants to honor Garvey both for his quick actions and his preparation. Long before the swimming party, Garvey had gotten training in rescue and resuscitation techniques.

“In a crisis, training like that pays off,” Caldwell said.

Taking a Gamble

Update: A potluck--legal defense fund-raiser--is planned Sunday afternoon in Grape Day Park in Escondido for anti-growth gadfly Elsie Mohler.

Mohler, 71, figures that if everyone who is angry at land developers in North County donates a few bucks, she’ll have enough to fight off a million-dollar lawsuit by builder Louie Pauletto.

She already has a starter: a $25 check from a woman in Carlsbad.

Mixed Company

It’s listed as a wedding, but the Kalla-Wickers nuptials Saturday at Point Loma Presbyterian Church could qualify as a mini-United Nations.

Take the bride, Kristin Anne Kalla, 25, a UC San Diego graduate making her way in Hollywood as a casting director.

Her father is a Palestinian who fought in the 1948 Mideast war. Her stepfather is Jewish and has relatives who fought in all three Mideast wars. Her mother is a Midwestern humanist.

Of 120 guests, 12 are Palestinians, 15 are Jewish, 12 are German, 5 are Bolivian and 3 are Yugoslavs. Guests are arriving from Damascus, London, Hawaii and Jamaica.

The bridegroom, Christopher Wickers, 22, was raised Catholic and is just out of the Marine Corps. Bridal planning has been an exercise in diplomacy, says the bride’s mother, Greta Berlin of Escondido.

The Jewish stepfather will bring the bride halfway down the aisle to the altar and deliver her to the Palestinian father.

What sort of music is played at the reception for a Palestinian-Jewish-humanist-Catholic-

German-Bolivian-Yugoslav wedding? An all-black jazz band, of course.

“I’ve asked them to play ‘Hava Nagila,’ ” Berlin said.