Hall of Flame
Greetings fellow firefighters, hope everyone is healthy and doing well in your family and your communities. It has been a different summer weatherwise, and I hope everyone has been able to enjoy the time with your families and friends.
It was another emotional and inspirational weekend at the Fallen Firefighters Memorial. The weather cooperated for the attendees to honor their loved ones and tell stories of their service to their communities. A big Thank You to all that support the memorial program especially Mike & Joan for organizing us all to honor our fallen. I would highly suggest if you have not attended one you should plan to attend next year as it is a very memorable visit and if you can’t make the weekend you can stop in as you pass through Coralville.
I had the honor of also awarding Dale Hupp from the Riverdale Fire Department with a 50-year service award.
Well as many know the Iowa Fair is an area where we like to influence families in Fire Prevention. We set up the Hall of Flame for the family’s tour and to see what can be done to protect their families and communities. With this I would like to thank all that help with setup and the people and departments that come in and man the stations during the Fair explaining the importance of preparation and prevention. Also, a big Thanks Ashley Whitson & Rusty Hockman for the extra work you do to make it a success.
One more thing I would like to touch on is that we have to keep up with the times we have determined it is in our best interest to take the paper digital. Not that any of us like change but we know it’s going to happen. January will be our first monthly news announcement. More information and the link to the website will be sent out to members later this year.
As I close, I ask that if you have ideas to improve the life of our volunteers bring the message to a board member, so we can pursue ways to ask our legislature for support in protecting our communities. Along with this we need you to personally tell your story and push the struggles of the service to our legislative body. If we work as a unified body, we can show strength to our legislation on our struggle in protecting our communities. I would also like to encourage you to talk and listen to each other as we need to stay strong physically and mentally to provide outstanding service to protect our communities. As we are a brotherhood and sisterhood of the fire service, so we must support each other to stay strong. So, take care of each other, if you have a concern for someone point it out to your leadership, as we are strongest when we take care of ourselves.
Kent Brix,
IFA 2nd Vice President