An islander rescued last month by Vashon’s Interim Fire Chief Ben Davidson in the midst of a storm now has more reason to feel grateful.

Last week, an anonymous donor stepped forward, providing new equipment that will help the islander weather future storms and power outages.

The story of the islander — who asked for anonymity to protect her privacy — was detailed in a front page article in The Beachcomber’s March 6 issue.

During the Feb. 25 storm, Davidson had been at home monitoring the fire district’s busy response to the situation, but jumped in to personally respond to one 9-1-1 call. The call came from an islander who lived alone, and had a respiratory condition that required the use of oxygen at all times. With her power out, she had switched to using a small, battery-powered back-up oxygen concentrator, which was delivering an insufficient oxygen supply — and quickly draining.

Davidson leapt into action, grabbing a portable generator from his garage and driving over to hook it up to her oxygen concentrator, the fire chief told The Beachcomber. He stayed for a little over an hour, sharing stories about island life by flashlight, until the crew could get to the house and swap out his generator with one belonging to the district. Early the next morning, Davidson returned to refuel the generator.

In a phone interview, the islander said she believed Davidson’s timely visit saved her life. “The world is spinning and seems out of control, and yet to have a human-to-human interaction like this that is positive to the max — you just don’t hear about things like that,” she said.

What happened next? The Beachcomber story about Davidson going out of his way to help prompted another longtime islander to do the same.

After reading the story, this islander — who spoke to The Beachcomber on the condition of remaining anonymous — decided to purchase a battery-powered generator to give to the woman who had found herself in trouble. On March 17, Davidson, accompanied by Lilie Corroon, Mobile Integrated Health program director, and Denise Paquette, the district’s administrative coordinator, arrived at the islander’s home with a surprise.

It was a powerful EGO Nexus Power Station — a battery-powered alternative to gas generators that delivers clean, quiet, and portable power. The gift — which includes two powerful lithium batteries — came complete with two additional batteries that brought the value of the donation to about $2,000.

The purchase was made on the advice of Ace Hardware Service Center staff member David Stone, who told The Beachcomber the donor showed up “out of the blue” at the store. On behalf of Ace, Stone offered help filling out the warranty form on the purchase, if needed, and recharging the additional batteries for free if needed as well.

The recipient didn’t know what was coming, she said — having only been told by Davidson that “the community has a gift for you.”

Arriving at her door with the generator, Davidson told her that someone had read about her story and donated it “so you don’t ever have to be without oxygen,” the recipient said.

At first, she said, she felt she could not accept the gift, until Davidson quietly told her: “This is a community that takes care of one another.”

“I was speechless,” she said. “In this day of political change and division, to have somebody reach out to try and help someone who didn’t realize how much help they needed — there are not enough words to thank that person for rekindling my faith in humanity.”

The donor, also reached by phone, described the gift as her immediate response to the story she had read in The Beachcomber.

“When I read about Ben Davidson’s action — providing such sensible, caring and practical help for somebody — I thought, I’m not going to do anything heroic, but could she use her own generator?” she said.

Her decision to simply give an islander something she needed, the donor said, reflected the spirit of Vashon — a place filled with organizations, including the Vashon Senior Center and the Vashon Food Bank, that are dependent on the work of volunteers and donors.

“There are lots of ‘somebodies’ like me on Vashon,” she said.

Another result of the story? According to Davidson, he has now met with leaders of both VashonBePrepared and its affiliated group, the Community Emergency Response Team, to discuss how those groups might further identify community resources, including generators, to help vulnurable islanders during storms and power outages.

Davidson said he, too, was deeply moved by the generosity of the donor who decided to make sure another islander had the equipment she needed to survive a storm.

“It’s a huge game changer to have something like that sitting there ready, so you don’t have to rely on your backup system,” he said. “Something like this makes me so proud to lead this fire department. We live in a place where people have enormous hearts, and look out for each other.”