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***Mrs.DMC***
I think I remember you saying you were a fire fighter, if I am correct does your station/department have a spouses/family group or something similar. I am asking because my husband is a fire fighter and I thought a lot of departments (police or fire) might have groups like these that act as a form of support for the dept. in terms of fundraising etc. I have been thinking about organizing something like this with his dept. and it really hit home when we lost one of his fellow FF's yesterday morning in an accident. I am just looking for ideas or suggestions of how they are organized, what types of things they do etc.
I just think in these situations it would be nice to have the support of the station to either raise money to help w/ funeral arrangements, deliver meals etc. or to raise money for future things.
Re: ***Mrs.DMC***
Hey..
Yes I am a firefighter. So sad to hear about the firefighter who passed. Did it happen in Orlando?
The best thing I can think of is the IAFF. If your husband works for a career dept they should be members of a Local. Our Local, as well as most others are full of support. It is one big family of 'brothers and sisters' who are always there for one another. Of course everyone in the Local is very open to help out a fellow members family!
This past year my department has lost 3 people...including my Lieutenant who I have worked with my entire career. He was also killed in a car accident(we are the ones that found him...that was a fun night:-( he was on a vacation day, we had no idea who it was until we saw his face..then his gear with his last name on it)
Anyway, the dept as a whole really comes together at times like that. If the family needs money, the Local makes it happen, if they need work done on their home...the Local does it ect ect. Another guy who passed earlier this year has a 12yo daughter. I know that his crew he worked with are all still very envolved in her life, attending her school functions ect. She calls them her 'fire dept dads.'
Our other loss this year was a line of duty dealth. Once again, the Local gets together and does whatever needs to be done. In a LODD weither it's police or fire...the state has a fund that pays a great deal of money to the family.
The only other thing I can think of is a Women's Auxiliary. I know that one of the wives from our dept started one of those. I guess that may be what you were looking for, a support group for the wives??? It is kinda an old fire dept tradional thing(back in the days when firefighters were only men) I am not even sure if it still exists. They used to send me letters and I would just throw them away since me and the other girls I work with were slightly offended to be included with the wives group since we were the actual firefighters(its a pride thing....lol) Anyway...her motif for starting that group was for support with whatever the wives needed support with, and of course a social thing. Personally, I prefer to just stick with the Local...but again, I am looking at it from a different perspective. If you know some of the other wives, maybe you could get together with them and start your own auxiliary. Hope I have steered you in the right direction....:-)
My husband is with the City of Deland and the FF was on his way to work, since he was on his way to work they considered it LODD. My husband belongs to his local but I am not sure about this particular FF. He is divorced but does have a 4 year old son so I imagine the Dept. or local will offer some form of support for his son and they are going to give him a proper FF funeral/ceremony.
Sounds like the womens auxiliary is more of what I am talking about, in our case all the FF in the dept. are male but I can certainly understand that in some cases there are husbands or gf's or bf's. I know that the FF"s get a lot of support from the local but I thought it would be a nice group to organize so that the spouses had some support and also for a social thing. I don't think people realize how it can be somewhat stressful with the lifestyles we have and its nice to have people that can understand. I was thinking of it as more a way to have social gtg's, play groups for people w/ kids, raise money for the dept., bring meals to people that had babies are sick etc. and maybe do some charity work on behalf of the dept.
I guess now I need to figure out if there would be anyone interested in joining! lol! Thanks for the input
Good for you for supporting a good cause. All it takes is one wife willing to start up and organize events.
Your best bet is to write a letter stating what you are wanting to do. Have your husband get a mailing list to all the Local members. Address it to all the Mrs. Find somewhere(maybe the union hall if the local has one) and set up a meeting and include a date and time inviting all of the wives of the dept to attend. I am sure there are plenty of wives that would love a social gtg like that. Alot of them probably already know one another. Most woman/moms only need an excuse to get out of the house:-)
Start by doing a monthly meeting( it's best to have it consistant every month, like the first mon of the month) Maybe set up a facebook page titled Local###(whatever Delands##is) Woman's Auxiliary. Put the email address in the letter and hopefully you will get some response. Good luck and let me know how it works out.
A great event to plan is a Firefighters Ball. Firefighters love a party:))))) Our union is having one in March. Some Locals don't do those. All it takes is one person to start a commitee and make it happen.
Yes..on the way to and from work is considered LODD. He should get the full honor funeral. Since it happened nearby, I will probably hear more about it when I go back to work tomorrow. That is tragic:-(