Scholarship created to honor Atefeh Bijan Scholarship created to honor Atefeh Bijan (January 28, 2004)

The Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford and its Becoming Parents program have established a scholarship in memory of Atefeh "Amy" Bijan, a retired Menlo Park nurse who died January 9 after being struck by a car in a crosswalk in the 2100 block of Santa Cruz Avenue.

In a January 14 letter to Ms. Bijan's family, the hospital announced the formation of the Amy Bijan Scholarship for young couples about to give birth but unable to afford prenatal education. Ms. Bijan taught childbirth classes at the hospital.

She was "an active and thoughtful member of our teaching team ... who cared so deeply about her students [who] were blessed with her humor and wisdom," said Nancy Sanchez, the hospital's community relations manager. "We hope that by awarding this scholarship, we will be keeping Amy alive in our program and in the hearts of expectant parents to come."

Meanwhile, at a neighborhood meeting Wednesday that focused on traffic problems in and around the site where Ms. Bijan died, her daughters Sherry Bijan and Shabnam Anderson and neighbors aired concerns about the crosswalk's safety to county Supervisor Rich Gordon.

Mr. Gordon has said that the county would either upgrade the mid-block crosswalk -- perhaps with warning lights -- or remove it.

"You need something to alert people that human lives are in this crosswalk," Ms. Anderson said.

The elderly and children use the crosswalk, said Sherry Bijan. "You owe it to them."

-- David Boyce

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