Volunteers keep cooling centers open on triple-digit Memorial Day

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KTXL) — While many people are off work for Memorial Day, volunteers with the city of Sacramento are working hard to make sure others stay cool and hydrated during Monday’s triple-digit temperatures.

Hagginwood Community Center Supervisor Denis Nishihara told FOX40 he received an emergency call from city officials on Friday.

“We’re going to be open and activated on Monday and tentatively on Tuesday,” Nishihara explained. “This is the second year, actually, of COVID that we’ve done it, and so we kind of had a process kind of set up.”

Nishihara opened the community space as a cooling center that is welcome to anyone trying to beat the heat.

“Some of them are transients, some of them are families that either get hit by a rolling blackout or just their air conditioning went out,” Nishihara said. “And we see people in the parking lot, it is very warm and so we tentatively go out and kind of hand out as much water as we can.”

Another cooling center was open at the Wackford Aquatic Complex in Elk Grove.

“Water to get rehydrated, then we have a couple of snacks if they’re hungry they can take those, and they can be here until we close,” explained volunteer Jamie Hudson.

The center was opened with the help of volunteers with the Cosumnes Community Service District Fire Department’s community emergency response team and the Elk Grove Police Department.

Some of volunteers say they are working their first Memorial Day in more than a decade.

“We put out messaging to both groups and were able to fill the necessary spots for today, luckily. Since it’s a holiday, you never know,” Hudson said. “And again, without volunteers we really can’t run these centers real efficiently.”

“Any time somebody is willing to donate time to community service and to help out others, it means a lot,” he continued.

Sacramento city officials said the Hagginwood Community Center and another cooling center at the Hart Senior Center on 27th Street were both open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Monday.

Depending on the temperature, city officials will open the cooling centers back up Tuesday.

In Sacramento, these splash pads will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.: