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Winter 2007 Employee-Directed Grants
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Photo courtesy of Hurst,
a unit of IDEX Corporation |
Fireman's Fund employees are encouraged to nominate local fire departments for grants. Departments do not apply for grants directly. Instead, employees interested in supporting the fire service nominate them. Nominations are reviewed quarterly by a panel of selected employees and independent insurance agents — with technical input from one or more local fire chief—in a particular region of the country. Each quarter a new review committee is created in a different part of the country.
Funding decisions on employee-directed grants are based on the information which comes through the employee nominations, so participating employees work closely with fire departments to make sure they represent the department's needs accurately. By directly engaging with local fire departments and non-profit groups, our employees help create programs that are customized to the specific safety needs of a community. If a grant is not awarded, the nomination can be resubmitted.
Funding for employee grants is tied directly to our company's performance. The better Fireman's Fund does financially, the more the fire service and the communities they serve benefit. This winter, Fireman's Fund employees awarded 21 grants totaling $454,000 to fire departments and organizations across the country. A list of these grants, plus those awarded through our independent agents, can be found below .
A Grant with Personal Meaning
When Fireman's Fund employees decide which fire department to nominate for a grant, they may refer to our needs database (see sidebar). But in one case this quarter, a letter from a volunteer firefighter set a nomination in motion because it held special meaning for Meredith Feld, an underwriter in our New Jersey offices.
Feld's grant nomination was for a set of extrication equipment to go to the Watchung Volunteer Fire Department near her home. Wayne Otto, a volunteer firefighter for over 25 years, first alerted Fireman's Fund to the department's need. His letter explained that a set of extrication equipment would be vital for a department near two dangerous highways. In 2007, Watchung firefighters have already responded to one fatal crash on U.S. Highway 22. Nevertheless, the pricetag for the equipment comes in at over a third of the department's allotted budget for an entire year, effectively putting it out of their reach.
Wayne Otto's letter struck a chord with Feld. Several years earlier, she and her husband had been hit by a drunken driver on I-78 and were trapped in their vehicle. She has been thankful to the firefighers who came to her and her husband's aid ever since. "I had been looking for a fire department to nominate through the Fireman's Fund Heritage program," she explains. "When I saw Wayne's request, I knew it was the perfect one for me to work on."
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The Watchung
Volunteer Fire Department in New Jersey receives a grant for extrication
equipment.
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Agent-Directed Grants
Feld was surprised to learn that the Watchung department currently has to depend on mutual aid agreements with neighboring communities to help when they need extrication equipment. Unfortunately, this adds time to every rescue call requiring extrication. "Often times, departments don't have the ‘luxury' of purchasing the most basic resources and tools they need," says Fire Captain Jim DiPaolo. The Watchung Fire Department is currently saving every bit of spare funding for new fire apparatus.
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Grants in Brief |
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Our agents and employees are directing grants to fire departments across the country. Congratulations to the most recent Fireman's Fund Heritage grant recipients:
Arizona
- Phoenix Fire Department, Phoenix — $6,455 for audiovisual/training equipment
California
- El Dorado County Fire Department, Camino — $27,050 for a thermal imaging camera and turnout gear
- Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, Pleasant Hill — $50,000 for a thermal imaging camera and turnout gear
- Sierra City Fire District, Sierra City — $24,326 for all-terrain rescue vehicles and a thermal imaging camera
- San Mateo Fire Department, San Mateo — $7,547 for SCBA voice amplifiers and lapel microphones
- San Miguel Consolidated Fire Protection District, Spring Valley — $25,995 for 80 wildfire shelters
- Upland Fire Department, Upland — $19,797 for an EKG heart monitor and defibrillator
- Visalia Fire Department, Visalia — $5,200 for two carbon monoxide detectors
Connecticut
- Town of Vernon Fire Department, Vernon — $28,500 for communications equipment
Florida
- City of Oldsmar Fire Rescue, Oldsmar — $7,262 for basic firefighting equipment, pagers and fire safety education materials
Georgia
- Newnan Fire Department, Newnan — $5,040 for fire safety educational materials
Illinois
- Alhambra Fire Department, Alhambra — $7,724 for SCBAs
- Mokena Fire Protection District, Mokena — $14,098 for two mobile data computers with accessories
- New Lenox Fire Protection District, New Lenox — $14,505 for hazardous material equipment
- Winfield Fire Protection District, Winfield — $45,000 for hazardous material equipment
Indiana
- Decatur Township Fire Department, Indianapolis — $11,136 for SCBAs with air packs
- Pierson Township Fire Department, Pimento — $18,608 for a thermal imaging camera, hoses and equipment for fire truck
Louisiana
- St. Bernard Parish Fire Department, Chalmette — $21,496 for nozzles, adaptors and a positive pressure vent
Maryland
- Waldorf Volunteer Fire Department, Waldorf — $5,000 in matching funds for an educational fire truck robot
Minnesota
- Gary Volunteer Fire Department, Gary — $22,549 for a thermal imaging camera and hydraulic extraction equipment
- Longville Area Volunteer Fire Department, Longville — $9,800 for a thermal imaging camera
- Waconia Fire Department, Waconia — $5,500 for a thermal imaging camera
Missouri
- East St. Louis Fire Department, East St. Louis — $5,095 for natural gas & carbon monoxide detectors
- St. Louis City Fire Department, St. Louis — $5,095 for hydraulic rescue tools
Nebraska
- Wymore Volunteer Fire & Rescue, Wymore — $14,800 for a thermal imaging camera and used fire apparatus
Nevada
- Las Vegas Fire and Rescue, Las Vegas — $10,545 for smoke detectors
New Hampshire
- Meriden Volunteer Fire Department, Meriden — $6,000 for turnout gear, laptop computer and projector
New Jersey
- Liberty Corner Fire Company, Liberty Corner — $24,253 for thermal imaging camera and 30 firefighter personal escape systems
New York
- Island Park Fire Department, Island Park — $10,590 for SCBA air bottle-refilling station
- FDNY, New York — $35,000 for high-rise ventillation fans and computer equipment
North Carolina
- Summerfield Fire District, Summerfield — $7,514 for fire safety education
Oregon
- Portland Fire and Rescue, Portland — $10,000 for two cardiac simulator mannequinns
- Seaside Fire and Rescue, Seaside — $8,800 for a thermal imaging camera
Pennsylvania
- Cornwells Fire Company, Bensalem — $16,950 for rescue equipment and a defibrillator
- City of Bethlehem Fire Department, Bethlehem — $45,000 for a four-wheel-drive utility vehicle
- Edgeworth Volunteer Fire Department, Edgeworth — $8,432 for a radio repeater system, back-up camera and fog nozzle
Tennessee
- Warriors Path Volunteer Fire Department, Kingsport — $10,000 for pagers
Texas
- Oak Hill Fire Department, Austin — $5,656 for misting fans for firefighter rehabilitation
- Nevada Volunteer Fire Department, Nevada — $11,410 in matching grant funds for a new tanker
- River Oaks Fire Department, River Oaks — $23,810 for firehose
- University Park Fire Department, University Park — $6,885 for a radio-amplified communication system
Virginia
- Mount Vernon Fire Department, Mount Vernon — $42,215 for portable radios, first responder golf cart, defibrillators, gas detectors, hand tools and training materials
Washington
- Bellevue Fire Department, Seattle — $27,000 for extinguishing agent, a thermal imaging camera, and radio batteries
Wisconsin
- North Shore Fire Department, Brown Deer — $9,142 for a thermal imaging camera
- Springfield Volunteer Fire Department, Springfield — $26,274 for turnout gear and a power generator
A complete list of grants (pdf) is available at www.firemansfund.com/heritage.
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