Monday August 31, 2009 Representatives from FFCB will be in Shelby, North Carolina to receive in a ceremony the 115 cutters and spreaders that are being donated to us. Through a partnership started over a year ago, Hurst (makers of the Jaws of Life) completed a trade in campaign whereby they allowed up to $1000 credit for a trade in tool toward the purchase of new. In 6 months they acquired over 125 tools and after refurbishing and using parts, 115 tools were ready to go.

Hurst’s goal was to try to get older less safe tools off the streets of the US and sent to areas served by FFCB.
In those areas the tools will be a usefull improvement over broken or no hydraulic equipment. Along with the tools we will be working with a local vendor in Guadalajara to bring training to those receiving the tools.

A note: The cutters and spreaders are without power units and to get them into the hands of those who need them we arranged with the Guadalajara vendor to include a cutter and spreader with each power unit sold at a discount. I

In this way we can get complete sets out to not only Mexico but throughout central and south america. The State of Jalisco has agreed to assist the agencys in their state in acquiring these sets and support the training to come. Hurst will be sending out a news release soon on this.

Wednesday we went up to King and Whatcom County, Washington to pick up donations from several departments, bringing back a full truckload and trailer of Turnouts and equipment. Thanks to the departments and all the firefighters who were patient and helpfull in making this equipment available to us.

Arriving recently we have two sets of new door magnets check them out. Donated by one of our members, these will help increase our visibility around the area and when we pick up donations and on our missions.