BUENA PARK : Firefighters’ Group Battling Illness

It was just before Christmas last year when the Firemen’s Assn. began asking for donations to save a sick girl. They didn’t have to beg.

People embraced Noemi Serrano, the soft-spoken 18-year-old senior at Buena Park High School who needed a new heart and lung to survive. Schools held fund-raising drives, children donated their pennies. Before it was all over more than $50,000 had been raised.

But in February, after finally getting on the waiting list for a transplant, Noemi died suddenly. The community was stunned.

Noemi’s death left the firemen with the difficult and delicate task of deciding what to do with the donated money.

More than $37,000 remained after funeral expenses were paid and donations returned to those who asked. That money was placed in a trust controlled by the association. Now, the firefighters have decided to give it to people who, like Noemi, desperately need the support of the community.

“We want to make a difference for people who can’t afford it,” Capt. Tom Harhay said. The money will go only to transplant patients without insurance, Harhay said.

This week they made their first donation of $10,000 to a girl the city of San Clemente has befriended. Oksana Hural, 19, from sister city San Clemente del Tuyu in Argentina, was $10,000 short of the $50,000 needed for a life-saving bone marrow operation. Harhay read about her plight and decided that she would be a perfect recipient.

Maria Perez, chairwoman of the fund-raising drive, fought back tears when the fireman gave her the check. “When he told me . . . I thought it was a joke,” said Perez, who has been trying since April to raise the money. Hural is now expected to fly to the United States and undergo the operation.

In the meantime, the firemen will continue scouting for recipients until their remaining $27,000 is given away, Harhay said. “We are looking.”