Greetings to my brothers and sisters of the Missouri fire service. Wow, where has the summer gone? With the COVID-19 pandemic going on we have lost our summer, kids are back to school, vacations have come and gone, county fairs and festivals have been canceled or moved to next year and most of our concerts and sporting events are going on with no fans or little fan base in the stands. This has been a year to remember to say the least, but we in the fire service have stayed strong through this and we will continue to push forward.
The Missouri State Fair has come and gone. If you had not heard there was a youth livestock show. The FFAM provided fire and EMS operations for this event. This was by far a slower than usual fair. They only ran eleven calls for the entire ten-day fair, but there was some excellent training going on while they were waiting for calls to happen. The FFAM hosted a Basic Firefighting class for our personal that did not have this certification and they also trained on firefighter CPR in case a mayday was called at a fire scene. Let’s not forget about the food as well. I can tell you when I visited the personnel on the first Saturday of the fair, if you went hungry, it was your own fault, the kitchen staff was amazing, and they wanted to make sure you were happy before you left.
I would like to thank the agencies that supplied equipment for the fair, Mid County Fire Protection District, Union Starr Fire Protection District, Southern Stone Fire Protection District, Wellington-Napoleon Fire Protection District, Buchanan County EMS, Pettis County Ambulance District, Johnson County Ambulance District and Higginsville EMS. Without these agencies, the fair would not work as effectively as it does. Thanks to Chief Plumb and his staff for a job well done.
October is going to be busy with FFAM. The first event is the fire marshal stair climb occurring on October 10th at Jefferson City. This event is helping to support Supporting Heroes, an organization that helps our fallen brothers and sisters in the case of a LODD and their families. The FFAM is sponsoring a floor for this event. Hope to see you there.
The second event is also occurring that weekend as well. The candlelight and the memorial service at Kingdom City will be happening. Due to the pandemic, the services will be done virtually. I encourage our members to log on and honor our brothers and sisters that have given the ultimate sacrifice.
The last event is the Missouri EMS and Fire Funeral assistance team training at the Lake of the Ozarks on the weekend of October 23-25. The EMS funeral team has brought in the National Honor Guard Training Team from Florida, to help the teams to make sure are doing the proper honor rights for our brothers and sisters. Thanks to Greg Wright for getting this great training in Missouri.
Before we know it, the convention for next year will be upon us. The Kearney Fire Protection District will be hosting the event, as they could not do it this year with the pandemic going on. This will be a big convention as we will be voting on the president and second vice president positions for the organization. If you have any nominations for these positions, please contact the nominating committee chairman Keith Smith.
If I can be of any assistance to your department, please contact me by email at grant_oetting@yahoo.com or call my cell 660-229-4525.
Until next time, stay safe my brothers and sisters.
FFAM
