Utah Fire Convention 2009

Last week Cody and I attended the Utah Firemen Association Convention. We left Tuesday night after work and headed to Richfield. It was really fun.

The first day Cody when with the men to a golf tournament...I spent the day shopping. Well not the whole day a did make it a few hours but you know me I'm not one to shop all day.

The 2nd day we went to a joint meeting and listened to a few speakers. One of them was Lynn Iverson a 93 year old man from Garland that had been a firefighter for many years. It was interesting to listen how they responded to and fought fires. One of the other speakers was Jay Westerguard. He was also from Tremonton and related to Cody...somehow. He spoke of the choice he made to be a firefighter. When he was very little (under the age of 10) him and his friend went to follow the firefighters to catch a glimpse of the fires. When he arrived on scene he watched as his father carried two duffle bags from the burnt house. They were 2 small children that had become victim to the fire. He vowed that day to prevent this from happening again. They also held a memorial for all the firefighters that had died over the past year. They gave a plaque to each family. They had bagpipers that came in and played Amazing Grace. It was very sobering. After that we headed to main street Richfield for the parade. Grantsville is the only department to dress up. Here is a picture of our group. Needless to say we didn't need the water guns. The rain soaked everyone!

The 3rd day we spent in separate meetings (the firemen/women and the auxiliary). In our meeting we went over the numbers of blankets, hygiene kits, movies, books, and money raised by each department to donate to the University of Utah Burn Center and Burn camp. Grantsville was able to donate: 50 blankets, 50 hygiene kits, and $400 to each the burn camp and burn center. It felt good to be part of the department that gave so much. I would like to put a challenge out there to anyone who wants to take it. I am going to try and put together a blanke or quilt once a month.

The women also had a great lady come and speak to us about how to recover from our stress and how to know when our 'batteries' are getting low. Her name is Jeri Mae Rowley. She is from Grangville Idaho. We need to schedule time for ourselves everyday. It may be a 15 minute bubble bath, a walk, reading a book, or listening to music.

The 4th and final day we voted on new officers.

Next year the convention will be in St. George. It should be a lot of fun.