Opening Our Hearts & Wallets

Pedro Perez, the window washer who survived after falling 11 stories and onto the roof of a car in San Francisco has been moved to a rehab facility.

SF Window Washer Who Survived Falling 11 Stories Touched By Outpour of Support, Donations: A window washer who survived after falling 11 stories and onto the roof of a car in San Francisco has been moved to a rehab facility. Pedro Perez continues to recover from injuries suffered during the late November fall. He is also learning that strangers have opened their hearts and wallets to help his family pay the bills. "He started crying because he couldn't understand how much people had helped and how much actually cared," said Monica Perez, his daughter. "It touched his heart that he is not going to have to worry about us as much as he thought."

The family had been living on workers comp, and hoped to raise $20,000 through a fund raising site to offset living expenses. So far, donations have topped $78,000 -- and many come with touching messages from donors who have never met Pedro Perez. Monica Perez said her father is doing better and is eager to follow his therapy. She added that her father does not remember the accident.

"We are lucky to still have him," she said.

Hello this is Monica Perez the daughter of Pedro Perez, I just wanted to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts on behalf of my father and my family and thank everyone for all their support their generosity and loving comments for the family it means a lot to us to know that were not alone and that people are willing to give us what little they may have just to help us in this time of need. The outcome of the fundraiser has surpassed anything we could have hoped for thanks to all the donations we have gotten in these past days. It will be possible not only for me to go back to school in the summer but it also gives my father a piece of mind to know that we wont have to struggle any longer with the bills and that we are going to be okay. This will also help him concentrate more on his rehab' so he doesn't try to rush things just to try to get back to work. We hope that soon, we will have our father back home with his family where he belongs. Once again, I want to thank everyone for helping us through this difficult time and making the holiday season a more pleasant one than we had anticipated - MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEARS TO EVERYONE  - Perez Family.

Perez suffered "extensive brain trauma," fractured his pelvis, broke his arm and ruptured an artery in his right arm. Perez cannot walk, and it's unclear if he'll ever be able to. Still, Perez's memory is coming back, his wife said, and he started calling his family members by name recently. "He has improved a lot," she said. Alfredo Fletes, a spokesman for the Services Employees International Union-United Service Workers West, added that Perez is "recovering quickly," faster than doctors first thought.

If you would like to donate for another window cleaner in distress - please consider this man!

People Donate Thousands For Pedro Perez

Maricela Perez, center, wife of Pedro Perez, a San Leandro man who fell from an 11-story building in San Francisco while window washing, speaks about her husband's recovery with her daughter Gaby Perez, 11, left, and Colin O'Leary, right, a Service Employees International Union organizer, at the SEIU United Service Workers West office in Oakland, Calif.

Window washer who fell 130 feet in S.F. 'wants to get up and run’ - Daniela Perez says her father, Pedro, is a stubborn man. The 58-year-old San Leandro window washer is stubborn about working hard. He is stubborn about passing down his values to his three daughters. And now, he is stubbornly fighting back after suffering extensive brain trauma, a shattered pelvis and a broken arm when he plummeted 11 stories from the roof of a building in San Francisco — and somehow survived.

“He is fighting,” Daniela, 16, said Monday. “He wants to get up already. He wants to get up and run.” It’s going to be awhile, though, before Perez can run — or even walk. He’s been slowly recovering at San Francisco General Hospital since the Nov. 21 accident, when he plunged from the top of 400 Montgomery St. during a job that went wrong. He was hurtling toward the asphalt below when, in an unusual piece of good fortune, he crashed into and crumpled the roof of a passing Toyota Camry.

Perez’s family is now reluctantly asking for help from the public as he embarks on a long recovery. His wife, 37-year-old Maricela, and three daughters — Daniela, 11-year-old Gaby and Monica, 19 — started a crowdfunding site to raise money. Perez, who has worked as a window washer for 15 years, has insurance through work to cover his medical bills and is getting workers’ compensation checks.

But without his full income, the family members said, they are scraping by. Maricela has been working extra hours at a plastic factory, while Monica quit school to take another job. “It’s not easy to be asking for help,” Maricela said through a translator at a news conference Monday in Oakland. Her husband, she said, “was the one helping to make ends meet. We need him a lot. He is our backup.”

A lone shoe of window washer, Pedro Perez who fell 11 stories onto a moving car sits in the gutter of Montgomery and California streets in San Francisco.

When Maricela first learned of the accident, she was told by a relative that her husband had died. It wasn’t until after she had frantically picked up her daughters from school that she learned through authorities he was alive — barely. Along with the brain trauma and broken bones, Perez was hemorrhaging internally from a ruptured artery in his right arm. Maricela Perez also didn’t know the incredible circumstances of the fall. It was around 10 a.m., amid the bustling crowds of the city’s Financial District, when Perez fell 130 feet into Mohammad Alcozai’s 2002 Camry.

Witnesses stepped in to help — calling 911, stopping traffic and urging Perez to hold on — and paramedics were at the scene within minutes, stabilizing Perez and rushing him to a hospital. “I think God wanted me to be there just at the moment that poor man fell,” said Alcozai, a traveling tech specialist from Dublin, who had slowed down and then sped up after his car’s navigation system shut down momentarily. “It was a miracle that he was able to fall in my car, and it was a miracle that I was OK.”

The driver of a 2002 Toyota Camry that was crushed after a window washer fell 11 stories onto its roof talks on the phone.

In the days after the accident, Maricela Perez said, “It was surgery after surgery. The doctors induced a coma because the suffering was so great. Truly, it is a miracle that he is still alive.” When he finally woke up, Perez wasn’t able to speak, his family said. He didn’t remember the fall, nor could he recognize familiar faces. But in the past few weeks, he has improved.

He’s now calling his relatives by name and is out of the hospital’s intensive care unit. Soon he will be moved to a rehabilitation center in Pleasanton, where he will work to regain use of his right side, Maricela said. “At first, it was hard to see him and not be able to ask if he’s OK,” Daniela said. “Now he’s talking. He can tell us what hurts. Before we couldn’t help him. We felt helpless.”

An investigator takes photos of window scaffolding platform after window washer, Pedro Perez fell 11 stories onto a moving car at Montgomery and California streets in San Francisco.

California workplace safety regulators are still looking into what caused Perez’s fall, and said Monday that they could not release details about the case until the investigation is complete. Century Window Cleaning of Concord, the firm doing the job, has not commented. “We have up to six months to complete the investigation,” said Peter Melton, a Cal/OSHA spokesman. “Typically, they are not finished within a month.”

Perez’s loved ones said they will spend Christmas at the hospital. They said he is eager to get back to work, but that his days of washing windows are behind him. “It’s hard not having my dad at home, especially with Christmas and my birthday coming up,” said Daniela, who turns 17 next month. “I hope he gets better, and he gets to come home. I want to be able to celebrate with him.”

Pedro Perez has had several surgeries for the injuries he received when he landed atop a car in the city's financial district Nov. 21 after plummeting 130 feet from the top of the Sterling Bank and Trust. He suffered extensive brain trauma, severely damaged his right arm and fractured his pelvis, and it's not clear whether he'll walk again. Maricela Perez through a translator said “They are saying it’s a miracle.”

Window Cleaners Getting In The Christmas Spirit

Window cleaners pledge to donate Christmas tips.

Amersham window cleaners pledge to donate Christmas tips: A father and son window cleaning duo are putting other people’s generosity to good use by donating all of their Christmas tips to charity. Terry Gurr and his son Aaron of Amersham based Highflow Services decided to donate every penny of the money from happy customers to children’s charity Beat Bullying. And the squeegee-toting pair are also giving away all of the wines, chocolates and other goodies received on their rounds at a charity tombola in Old Amersham Memorial Gardens this Saturday as part of the town’s Christmas celebrations.

Terry said: “My son just turned round to me recently and said he was going to give away all his tips this Christmas, so we both decided to do it and give them to charity. “Both my wife and I have experienced bullying in the past and it’s a great cause for it to go to. “We want to encourage people to donate items to the tombola so we can raise as much money as possible.” To donate an item for Terry and Aaron’s tombola at this weekend’s Christmas celebrations in Old Amersham, pop in to Bojangles Cafe on Hill Avenue, which is taking donations.

How about a heartwarming picture on a cold Indianapolis day? Elves were cleaning the windows on Thursday at Riley Hospital for Children.

Elves Drop In on Riley Patients: Little patients at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health got a holiday treat as Santa's Elves rappelled down the windows of the Simon Family Tower Thursday morning stopping to wave at patients on every floor.

American National Skyline, Inc. spread the elf love.

Father and son window cleaning rivals help Boston flood victims: Father and son window cleaning rivals David and Andrew Willis came together to help flood hit properties in Boston. The pair – of Washforce and Clean 143 respectively – were able to clear the standing water from the offices of the Boston Standard as well as many other businesses in the area. In the video above the pair explain their role in the volunteer clear up effort.

The rise of loneliness in 21st century Britain: Christmas can be the loneliest time of the year for older people and those living on their own. But loneliness is a growing problem all year round, not just during the festive season. Huddersfield has a number of initiatives, including luncheon and over-sixties clubs; church groups; the OWLS weekday leisure club; and the University of the Third Age. And the work of the Community Church continues all year, with befriending groups for everyone from mother and toddlers and refugees to older people and vulnerable adults.

The church has to fundraise to run the groups, which are mostly free, and the annual Christmas lunch alone costs over £1,000.  This year it was supported financially by a number of local organisations and individuals, including a firm of window cleaners, a 92-year-old well-wisher who sent a cheque for £500 and a bereaved family who asked for contributions instead of funereal flowers. “I think it’s wonderful that it has been supported by the wider community and we have so many volunteers who come together on the day,” said Charlene.  “It makes it more special somehow.”

The Queen said it first in 2008 when she awarded John Lewis with a Royal Warrant as “suppliers of haberdashery and household goods”. This window display is a feet of engineering genius. This utterly inclusive window unveils nothing less than a hoover reindeer, a chesterfield-slash-picnic-hamper grizzly bear, towelling turkeys, crockery squirrels, cutlery parrots, and a very lovely cleaning utensil bunny rabbit.

Window Wonderland - a look at Christmas window displays from John Lewis, Harrods, Selfridges and more: Georgia Barretta-Whiteley, head of design at shopper marketing agency Saatchi & Saatchi X, casts her eye over the Christmas window displays of London’s biggest retailers. At time of writing, the Christmas season is well (but not truly) upon us. Only in retail land has its glistening, cinnamon-tasting, sprayfrosted, white fur-lined grip really taken hold. The capital’s shopping districts now have their main arteries blocked by rubber-neckers from all over, walking into lamp posts, stepping backwards into traffic and spilling noxious toffeenut latte over oncoming, equally-as-distracted pedestrians. The Christmas store window extravaganza has begun, and what follows is an attempt to quantify the magic of the top seven heavy-hitters in central London. 

Store; Harrods - When a store has a mission statement that declares; ‘…through a combination of product, innovation and eccentricity, we aim to provide every customer with a truly unforgettable experience in our quintessentially British environment…’ my expectations for what lay behind the Harrods Christmas glazing are high. Upon approach and judging by the elbowed jostle, this appeared a high real-estate piece ‘o’ pavement. And it was in fact sensational. To stroll from one end to the other is to leap between the carriages of the ‘Harrods Christmas Express’.

Store; Harvey Nichols - The boisterous hijinks exploding from the excesses of the Harvey Nicks window scene currently unfolding in Knightsbridge makes it seem as though our otherwise conscientious elves are throwing an X-rated delivery day after-party of thumping proportions somewhere inside the store. The hyped-up, brassy still-life set-ups seem to regard anything expected as simply a common affectation. It’s all here, whooping and hollering out at you, challenging you not to be impressed.

Store; Selfridges - Mr Selfridge understood that to make customers spend, you have to capture their imagination. A hundred years ago when he casually mentioned to the team that: “…the whole art of merchandising consists of appealing to the imagination. Once the imagination is moved, the hand goes naturally to the pocket”, I’m not sure if he realised that the ramifications of such a principle would be playing out as wonderfully as they currently are behind his set of panes this Christmas. It’s all a bit ‘Gulliver’s Travels’.

Store; Fortnum and Mason - Fortnum’s at Christmas, and the anticipation of that approach, has a lot to live up to given the standard of those windows at any other time of year. I have to say, in the end, my Christmas spirit was left a little damp. Christmassy ‘stuff’ framed all gold-gilded, cherubs, a melancholy Victorian Santa Claus, chocolate box dusty miniatures of families tucking into Christmas morning excess. One window even boasts a turkey-eating scene. Eww.

USA Christmas 2013 window displays. Above; Macy's in New York. Click to enlarge.

Opening windows: Midtown stores add a touch of glass for holidays - 'Tis the season for window shopping, and spirits aren't the only thing the city's world-famous storefronts are making bright. Above Macy's (Don't miss) An enormous crystal tree in a forest of jewel-encrusted deer, foxes and other woodland creatures, or the LED spider web that transforms into a perfect snowflake. Check out the touch-screen snowflakes in the interactive window, which become fairies or shatter animated icicles at the tap of a finger.

Lord & Taylor - What's new: These windows are a flurry of activity, from spinning puppets to cardboard panels that slide back and forth like the "Monty Python" intro. Click to enlarge.

Store: Henri Bendel - "That looks like a fun table!" says Bendel's visual VP, Gilberto Santana. "It would be a great party." Click to enlarge.

Store: Bloomingdale's  Don't miss: The "Good cheer from China!" display has it all -- a dragon with shimmering scales and fuzzy pandas pedaling on bikes. The Big Apple window proves there’s no place like home for the holidays, with an adorable brown bear balancing packages before shining icons like Lady Liberty and the Chrysler Building. Click to enlarge.

Store: Bergdorf Goodman  - What's new: Imagine Christmas in July. No, really. These windows show a white Valentine’s Day, with a frosted boudoir brimming with bouquets of flowers and cakes, and a chilly April Fool's Day display that turns the holiday -- and one stunning Alexander McQueen gown -- upside down. Click to enlarge.

Lord of Leviathan • Nicole Cantú • $8,000

Gift Guide: 'Hellraiser' Stained Glass Window - A handmade, 3D stained glass window of Pinhead from Hellraiser. Amazing, right? Designed by Nicole Cantu for the Guzu Gallery in Austin, Texas, it's big, it's bold, and it's expensive. I want it. Is it wrong that I want to replace a regular stained glass church window with this one, just to see what happens? I have seen some of those religious windows - Pinhead is way tame compared to a lot of them. Sadly the stained glass window is only available for local pickup. Maybe a road trip is in order? $8,000 from Guzu Gallery.

Race for Life - A Window Cleaners Niece

Ian Wicks of Window Washers would like to add this message:

"As many on here will know my three year old niece Summer was fighting for her life last year
and sadly died from Cancer just before Christmas last year. I am trying to get some sponsors for my wife as she is taking part in race for life to raise money for cancer research and I want to help beat her target." Pictured: "This is my Wife and Summer, time stamp wrong on camera!" "Any amount will help. Help me beat this target and help to find a cure for a this horrible disease that can happen to anyone young or old." "Last week should have been Summer's 4th birthday :'(
I cannot describe how this affected me and my family and the people that knew Summer, and my heart goes out to anyone that has or is going through this." You can donate HERE.

The history for people that do not know is:
"Summer at about 11 months old had a large mass on her arm, the hospital said it was just something cosmetic and sent her and her mum away to come back when she was 18 to have plastic surgery if needed. We went to the IOW where they live and the lump was massive I was praying it was not what I thought it was, she went back to a doctor and they called great ormond street hospital as an emergency and she was rushed up there (it was not cosmetic it was cancer and had spread into her little chest). When at Great Ormond street they found Summer had a tumor in her arm and had gone to her lymph gland and was now around her chest wall (makes me shake typing this) they amputated her lower arm and removed the tumor from her chest wall and removed lymph nodes.
She then was given radio therapy and chemo' for 6 months obviously loosing her hair in this time. the cancer kept growing, so she had another operation on her arm but this time they wanted to take away summers shoulder and the rest of her arm and part of her body but they said they wanted to try a high dose of treatment first, this went on and on, and in october last year she was given the all clear! She went to Disney-land to celebrate wearing her little princess dress, full of life.
She went back for a routine check-up in November last year and the doctors said it was back and there was nothing they could do and she had less than 4 weeks to live.
You could have knocked anyone of the family over with a feather, I shut my window cleaning business down and me and my wife went to the iow to spend as much time as we could with Summer, a charity gave her a specialy adapted bike and she loved it bless her, she went on it for three days, when we went to the iow she was well, happy her normal cheeky self, then the cancer took hold, she complained of belly ache, so they put her on morphine, she then stopped eating, and went down hill fast, but being the little fighter she was she hung in there and would not give up. I will not say more on this part as it is very upsetting reliving the nightmare we was living in, and how her mum coped I just don't know.
Carrying my nieces coffin out of the church is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and something I hope anyone would never have to go through, I have to say I was honoured to do it though carrying the most special little girl in the world, she really was a ray of sunshine in our lives..
This is why my wife is doing this race. I am sorry if this has upset anyone, and if anyone is going through this, you do not have to be alone I find it good to talk about it. Help others - every £1 donated helps."

Thanks, Ian Wicks. Window Washers.