Thursday ended 30 years as a firefighter, 25 of those as a
captain, for Santa Clara County Fire Department Captain Mike
Sanders. This morning, more than a hundred people will gather to
have breakfast with the retiree to celebrate his career and
commitment to the community.
Thursday ended 30 years as a firefighter, 25 of those as a captain, for Santa Clara County Fire Department Captain Mike Sanders. This morning, more than a hundred people will gather to have breakfast with the retiree to celebrate his career and commitment to the community.
“He has a heart of gold, that’s the first thing that comes to mind about him,” former Fire Chief Brad Spenser said Thursday. “He would do anything to help anybody. He cannot stand by without offering a hand.”
Spenser, who first met Sanders as a volunteer and later hired him in 1974 as a full-time firefighter, said Sanders is the embodiment of a firefighter.
“This is a bloody, dirty, filthy rotten job,” he said. “You absolutely have to be motivated to want to reach out and help. That’s what I looked for when I was hiring people, for someone who could look beyond that and see the need for dedication. Mike, he knew he had to help society. He was the perfect candidate for a firefighter.”
Sanders, who has three children and was The Times Father of the Year in 1986 and the Morgan Hill Employee of the Year in 1989, said his first attempt as a “firefighter” is a little embarrassing to think about now.
“We had a program in school that day about fire safety, and I had one of those badges, and my plastic fire marshal helmet, and I decided I was going to put out a fire,” he said. “But first I had to build one. I took a bunch of tumble weeds and set them on fire. Of course, it got out of control, and I ended up scorching the paint on my family’s house.”
Sanders even remembers his first official day on the job as a less than auspicious beginning.
“When I was hired, the station was on the corner of Monterey and Main,” he said. “When you were on duty, you were on duty for 24 hours, and you were on duty alone. My first day I was so proud and so excited. This was what I had waited for. In the morning, the first duty was to raise the flags.”
Sanders said he very proudly brought the American flag to the flagpole, hooked it on and began raising it.
“I heard people honking, saw people waving at me, and I waved back, really big wave, proud and happy,” he said. “Finally, one man leaned out of his car window and said to me, ‘Son, you’ve got the flag upside down.’”
Despite these early “incidents,” Sanders has much to be proud of. An active parent to Jeffrey, 23, Anthony, 21, and Gina, 19, his list of activities and involvement with their schools and extra-curricular pursuits is too long to list. Notably, he served as president of the P.A. Walsh Home & School Club, was a board member of the Live Oak Foundation scholarship program, coached youth roller hockey for five years, spent two years as varsity head coach of the Live Oak High field hockey team (the team was Monterey Bay League champion in 2001) and served as president of the Live Oak High Future Farmers of America Agricultural Boosters for three years.
Now that he is retiring, Sanders will continue to be active in his children’s lives.
“The first three months, I plan to go back east and watch every game Gina plays in,” he said.
Gina, who is a past member of the National Field Hockey Team and traveled with the team to Holland and Australia, is currently attending the University of Massachusetts and playing Division I field hockey.
Jeffrey graduated earlier this month from CalPoly San Luis Obispo, and Anthony, a past member of the Volunteer Division of the Santa Clara County Fire Department, is certified as a paramedic now is working as a paramedic/firefighter, something he has wanted to do since he was 4 years old, Sanders said.
But that is not surprising, since Sanders’ job many times was a family affair.
“Our public education program has meant a lot to me, and to my family,” he said. “I have worn the ‘Sparky the Fire Dog’ costume many times, but so has my wife and so have my kids.”
The support and involvement of his family, as well as the support of his fellow firefighters, have helped him get through the ugly parts of the job.
The worst call he’s ever been on, he said, and there have been some bad ones, involved a classmate.
“It was having to go to a fellow classmate who had hung herself,” he said. “I had to cut her down, and then I had to tell her parents.”
Spenser said Sanders has never been known as someone who was hardened past caring to the job.
“If someone was hurt, he was always disturbed, it always touched him I think,” he said.
While Spenser said Sanders never let emotion get in the way of doing his job, his compassion led him to go beyond his job to help others. Sanders’ involvement with the Alisa Ann Ruch Burn Foundation goes back 22 years.
“That’s the best thing I’ve ever gotten involved with,” he said. “I’ll do anything I can to help those kids.”
Every summer there is a camp for the kids, and Sanders has been there for 15 years as a counselor or staff member.
“It’s a small thing we can do for them, but I think it means something,” he said. “Those kids have been through incredible ordeals. Some of them have been through 60-80 surgeries already, and they’re so young.”
Spenser said Sanders’ work with the foundation has touched many lives.
“He is super-involved with the burn foundation; he has worked with I don’t know how many hundreds of kids to help them deal with their injuries,” he said.
But Sanders hasn’t neglected needs in Morgan Hill, either.
‘I have always believed in giving back to the community I live in,” he said.
His volunteer efforts include serving as president of the Jackson Oaks Homeowners Association, a 15-year volunteer at the Mushroom Mardi Gras, a past member of the Morgan Hill Kiwanis and an original member of the Graffiti Wipe Out Program in Morgan Hill.
“To be a firefighter, you have to be the kind of person who can’t stand by, who wants to get in there and help,” he said. “Mike is the kind of guy who wants to offer his talents in services in anyway possible. I was proud to have work, not for me, but with me.”
After his three-month trip, Sanders said he will remain active in the community.
“I’ll still stay involved,” he said. “I’ll find something to do.”
And, he said, he’ll fish.
