CITADEL ALUMS LEND A HELPING HAND.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Odds and ends from around the Valley:

Thanks to an outpouring of local and national support, Jayro Medina, the determined 19-year-old Panorama City young man I wrote about a few weeks ago, will be leaving in August for his first year at The Citadel, a South Carolina military academy.

``Any kid who looks at a military school today and says, `That's for me,' well, he deserves all the support we can give him,'' said Shell Suber, past president of one of The Citadel's dozens of national alumni clubs.

``Kids like this don't come along every day.''

No, they don't. I got a feeling that's why so many people responded to the June 8 column I wrote on his dream to attend The Citadel, and the help he was receiving from his former Monroe High School teacher, Anne Bowman.

In the past two weeks, Jayro has received a private $21,000 scholarship for his first year at the military academy, the promise of more scholarship funds in the future from the school's alumni chapters, more than $1,000 in local, individual contributions for an education fund and a summer job to help him pay his own way to college.

``It has been absolutely amazing that so many people are willing to do this for me,'' Jayro said Thursday, working behind the counter at a store called Orphaned CD in Hollywood. ``I can't begin to express how grateful I am. I promise I won't let them down.''

A local Valley couple, Gary and Ricki Martin, who own the store, gave Jayro the job after reading about him.

``The kid's a winner,'' Gary says. ``He shows up on time, works hard, and is full of `Yes, sirs,' and `Thank yous.' A shy, great kid.''

None of the accolades surprises Bowman, the former Monroe High teacher who spotted Jayro's talent in her class in 2003.

As I wrote, Jayro wasn't the smartest kid in Bowman's class, but he was the most motivated. He didn't know a word of English when he emigrated from Guatemala with his mother in 1997, but six years later he was writing beautiful essays about how he was the luckiest kid in America because he was getting a chance to go to school.

``Here was a kid whose father had died when he was 3, living in a cramped, two-bedroom apartment with six relatives in a gang-infested area of Panorama City, writing these beautiful, uplifting essays,'' Bowman said.

If ever a kid deserved a shot at continuing his education, it was Jayro, the teacher knew. But how? His family was poor, and because he was here with his mother on a green card and was not a U.S. citizen, he was not eligible for an ROTC scholarship that had been offered him to attend The Citadel.

``Without that scholarship, I saw his future flying out of his hands,'' Bowman said. ``I was sick.''

When I talked to her again Thursday, she was feeling like a million bucks.

When he arrives in South Carolina on Aug. 11, the day before classes start at The Citadel, Suber will pick Jayro up at the airport.

``He'll stay that night with my family, and we'll feed him what we Citadel alumni lovingly call the final meal before I drop him off the next day,'' he said, laughing. ``Believe me, freshmen at a military school are way too busy to eat for quite a while.''

Jayro doesn't care. He's just glad for the opportunity.

Kudos to the firefighters over at Station 72 in Canoga Park for recent service beyond the call of duty.

A few weeks ago, an elderly man showed up at the station bleeding from his head after falling at home.

The firefighters stopped the bleeding and took him to the hospital. A week later, about 15 firemen showed up at his home carrying yard tools.

``To my father-in-law's amazement, they cut the shrubs, pulled the weeds, edged the walkways and didn't stop until his yard was in beautiful shape,'' Lisa Martin said.

Her father-in-law, who did not want his name used, has a hard time letting anyone lend him a hand, she said.

``He always wants to do everything himself, but when he overexerts himself, he risks the possibility of blacking out again. His own children have tried relentlessly to do the yards for him, among other things, but he has an extremely difficult time allowing it to happen,'' she said.

``It turns out fire Capt. Rich Denny from Station 72 grew up with my father-in-law's children and was surprised to find out how much he was still trying to do for himself at 82.

``He told my father-in-law it was time he let others help him, and that's what his crew was there to do. My father-in-law was amazed. What a great bunch of guys.''

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Teacher Anne Bowman has been helping Jayro Medina make his way through school. In August, Medina will leave for The Citadel, a military academy in South Carolina.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer