Local girl in hospital with H1N1: Someone to keep in your thoughts this Thanksgiving Day

Katie Grace Groebner is a 7-year-old girl who suffers from a rare disease, pulmonary hypertension, and who will soon need a heart and lung transplant. Unfortunately, she contracted H1N1 last week, and is now in the hospital.

Adding to this family's latest trial is the fact that Katie Grace's mom, Kathy Groebner, had tried to protect her daughter, with her vulnerable health, from H1N1, first by removing her from school in October, and then starting her on the swine flu vaccine as soon as it became available. Katie Grace received her first dose and was due to receive her second dose (they give it in two doses), on November 21, but "no one had it," Kathy says. Stanford medical center had obtained doses of the vaccine, and Katie Grace was scheduled to get the second dose on November 30. "I thought I had time," her mom says.

But last week, Katie Grace and her mother accompanied Katie Grace's older sister's class from Mt. Diablo Elementary school on a field trip. Some other students apparently had the swine flu, with a note going home with students that night, saying that 14 students at the school had been confirmed as having swine flu since school started.

As soon as Kathy received word on Friday that a boy who sits next to her older daughter had a confirmed case of H1N1, doctors started both Katie Grace and her older sister on Tamiflu. On Saturday, Katie Grace started to run a fever of 103.

Kathy Groebner posted an update on Katie Grace's condition last night on Caring Bridge, a website that connects family and friends during a serious health event.

Claycord's Lemon Lady wins Jefferson Award

Anna Chan, the Lemon Lady of Claycord, is sending out a letter to her friends, notably her friends at the farmers markets in the area, announcing that she is being honored with a Jefferson Award.

These prestigious awards recognize community and public service on both a national and local level. They began in 1972 to essentially create a Nobel Prize for public service; today, their primary purpose is to serve as a "call for action" for volunteers.

We have all become acquainted with Anna and her "one-woman campaign against hunger." She and her daughter Ava began traveling around our area, looking for fruit to pick from people's front yard trees, which they began to donate to local food banks and food pantries. Pretty soon, Anna was making the rounds of local farmers markets, where farmers have generously donated produce, which she then transports to food banks and food pantries.

Her delightful and informative blog tells us that she has harvested at least 12,000 pounds of local fresh produce. Her blog lets all of us in the East Bay 'burbs about what's going on with the food banks, the farmers markets, and community gardens.

Actually, she first came to the attention of the blogger friends, the Mayor of Claycord and Mister Writer through her advocacy on behalf of Katie Grace Groebner a local 7-year-old girl who suffers from a rare disease, pulmonary hypertension, and who will soon need a heart and lung transplant. By the way, as Anna points out in her latest post on Katie Grace, November is Pulmonary Hypertension Awareness Month.

Anna says that CBS5 will be taping an interview with her on December 1, and that her story should air sometime between December 6 and 12.