The first time I watched this video released Tuesday I was confused as it took unexpected turns. It starts out with a group of people of a certain age sitting around a fire. A couple of the faces are recognizable and they start talking about fire. And Spam.
The Spam talk ends quickly and becomes the story of how smokejumper Kenneth Perry turned the toughest day of his life into something inspirational, leading to a 52-mile marathon benefitting fallen firefighters and their families through the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.
Hormel said they learned about Kenneth’s story after making a donation to a fundraiser for the Wildland Firefighter Foundation. Since then Hormel has continued to support the WFF.
“Though we were introduced to SPAM®’s deep role in smokejumper lore, Kenneth’s story is the inspiration we wanted to share”, they said after releasing this video.
Like Ken said, “In a perfect world we would not need the Wildland Firefighter Foundation“, which assists firefighters and their families when tragedy strikes. But, for many reasons, we do need it and other similar organizations.
We’ve been told that in the campfire scene you may be able to pick out in addition to Kenneth, Wayne Williams, Keith Wolferman, Maggy Doherty, Riva Duncan, and Kent Hamilton. In the footage shot during the run you’ll see hotshot crews including, Texas Canyon, Bear Divide and Kern Valley.”
Brian and Zach, winners of Jack Links National Jerky Butte 2021. Still image from Jack Links video.
In recognition of National Jerky Day, Jack Links Jerky held a competition on June 12 in which four teams competed for a $10,000 prize and a year-long jerky subscription. It was held at Jerky Butte, Arizona, of course. The winners, Brian and Zach, donated their monetary prize to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation.
The competition over steep, rocky, brush-covered terrain involved not only going cross country as fast as you could but also solving a Jenga puzzle, a riddle, and a balancing act.
Jerky Butte. Still image from Jack Links video.
When told they had won, one of the team members said, “Thanks. I’m tired and I’m bleeding all over!” after having completed the race while wearing shorts. Later he said, “Support your forestry technicians.”
Congratulations Brian and Zach!
The Wildland Firefighter Foundation assists firefighters that have been injured on wildland fires and the families of firefighters who have been killed.
(Note: we were told that the two very generous guys are forestry technicians and wanted to remain anonymous. However, the video below which was the source of the images here and the names they competed under, was posted on YouTube.)
Brian and Zach, winners of Jack Links National Jerky Butte 2021. Still image from Jack Links video.
Above: WFF Executive Director Vicki Minor and NFFF Executive Director Ron Siarnicki. Screenshot from the video referenced below.
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) is announcing a new initiative directed toward wildland firefighters. Today with the support of the Wildland Firefighter Foundation (WFF), they are introducing the Everyone Goes Home in the Wildland program. It is an offshoot of the Everyone Goes Home® (EGH) program established by the NFFF in 2004 featuring the 16 Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives. Their goal was to “help the U.S. Fire Administration achieve its objective of reducing the number of preventable firefighter fatalities”.
In 2017 the NFFF began a series of six listening sessions around the United States asking firefighting personnel for their ideas about how to reduce line of duty deaths and injuries on wildland fires. Input was also obtained from natural resource management organizations that have not traditionally identified themselves as part of what we know collectively as “the fire service.”
Drawing from their success in reducing LODDs among structural firefighters through programs under the Everyone Goes Home® umbrella, the NFFF now proposes to leverage their strengths and resources to do the same for wildland firefighters.
A brewery in Virginia has developed a special beer that not only recognizes wildland firefighters but will help support the Wildland Firefighter Foundation (WFF). The One Foot in the Black beer is a smoked black IPA that was brewed to honor wildland firefighters. According to the Devils Backbone Brewing Company, it has “a smoky flavor that that interplays with the pine character of American hops”.
The name of the special brew comes from the advice to stay on the edge of the burned area on a wildland fire because usually it can be used as a safety zone. The beer was designed by brewer Erik Filep who himself is a wildland firefighter.
The company will donate 50 percent of the per pint and per growler sales to the WFF, a non-profit organization that assists wildland firefighters and the families of firefighters injured or killed while on the job.
This is not the first time a brewer has supported the WFF. In 2014 during the Coors Banquet “Protect Our West” program, the company contributed 25 cents to the WFF for every case of the beer sold in select states in the Western region throughout July and August, up to $250,000.
TSN Advertising photo from 2014.
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Pete. Typos or errors, report them HERE.
The Wildland Firefighter Foundation is in the news again for issues between the staff and the Board of Directors. Below is an excerpt from an article by Rocky Barker in the Idaho Statesman:
Three board members left the Wildland Firefighter Foundation earlier this month saying the charity hasn’t made the changes necessary after a controversy over the leadership of its founder and director Vicki Minor.
Cheryl Molis, a retired Forest Service administrative manager and treasurer of the group from Boise, Dan Friend, former Eagle Fire Chief and Boise attorney Steve Smith stepped down after Minor, who is beloved in the wildland firefighting community for her aid to the families of killed and injured firefighters, elevated her assistant to chief financial officer.
The three raised questions about her qualifications and independence from Minor and her son Burk who run the group that raises $2 million and distributes $400,000 to the families of down firefighters.
“They want to run it like a family business, not a non-profit,” said Molis.
Minor praised all three and said they had timed out on the board. Minor took issue with Molis…
Rocky Barker has an article in the Idaho Statesman about how criticism of the organization has brought about changes. Below is an excerpt:
The harsh words from some of the surviving family members of fallen firefighters about the Wildland Firefighter Foundation weren’t easy to hear for Vicki Minor, the executive director and founder of the group that is dedicated to helping them.
I reported in February that critics and former board members said the foundation has grown too fast and had too few controls in place to ensure proper spending. But it was the view of some family members that they were treated poorly or forgotten that was tough on the Boise woman who has dedicated more than 16 years to help firefighters’ families through their grief.
Minor said this week that she and the foundation are better for the scrutiny.
“Actually, I’m grateful we had this done,” Minor said. “(This has) helped us become better at what we do, and that is taking care of wildland firefighters.”
An independent review conducted by Boise consultant Karyn Wood for the foundation’s board confirmed many of the shortcomings I reported in February. There was a lack of clear policies and there was little oversight on expenses, reporting on how they gave money to firefighter survivors and clarity about how the money they raised was spent…
The statue of a wildland firefighter that was removed from the Boise Airport and placed in Prescott, Arizona July 9, 2013 at the site of the memorial service for the 19 firefighters killed on the Yarnell Hill Fire. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
There is no doubt that the Wildland Firefighter Foundation has accomplished much to help injured firefighters and the families of fallen firefighters. Vicki Minor, the Executive Director, is well known for the hands-on emotional and financial support she has provided through the foundation. We have been a member of their “52 Club” for years, and many times on this site we have praised their work and helped to publicize some of their fund raising activities.
We were troubled when in early December a television station in Arizona published an article in which they quoted some family members of the 19 firefighters that were killed on the Yarnell Hill Fire who were not satisfied with the level of assistance they received from the WFF. One of their criticisms was that the foundation did not donate all of the money they received after the tragedy to the families. They did not take into account that the WFF had a larger mission than just that one horrible incident. The WFF said that all of the funds earmarked by the contributors for the Yarnell Hill Fire were given to the families.
The spotlight on the organization revealed management issues within the WFF that were concerning.
Rocky Barker of the Idaho Statesman has written an in-depth article that explores the controversy while also providing examples of assistance the WFF has provided to firefighters and their families.
Brendan McDonough, Yarnell Hill Fire survivor, speaks in Prescott, Arizona at the July 9, 2013 memorial service for the 19 firefighters that died on the fire. Vice President Joe Biden and Arizona Governor Janice Brewer are on the left and right, respectively. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
Brendan McDonough watched from a distance as the other 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots became entrapped and died June 30, 2013 on the Yarnell Hill Fire south of Prescott, Arizona. Now, according to an article in the USA Today, he still struggles with stress-related problems. No longer a firefighter but working for the Wildland Firefighter Foundation, he wants to “create a non-profit organization to fulfill a dream of building a “healing center” in Prescott where first-responders, including troubled wildfire crews and their families, can seek treatment.”
The article’s main focus is a topic that rarely gets discussed in the world of wildland fire — the day to day psychological strains that firefighters face which are similar to those experienced by warfighters. The military has a highly developed program for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but the land management agencies, with a primary focus of growing trees, cleaning campgrounds, and managing visitors and non-native plants, have done little, effectively, to deal with a shocking suicide rate, for example.
The excellent article gives several examples of how stress is negatively affecting some of our firefighters. Below is an excerpt:
…Wildland Firefighter Foundation Executive Director Vicki Minor — Burk Minor’s mother — estimates that as many as one in four such firefighters struggle with emotional trauma.
She says her organization counted six firefighter suicides during 2013. If accurate, it suggests a rough suicide rate of 17 per 100,000, far higher than the national average and similar to the pace of these deaths in the military.
“Our government, our fire officials, the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, they’re really good at taking care of the land and they know how to fight fire,” Vicki Minor says. “They don’t know how to take care of their people.”
Federal workers get free visits to a contracted private counselor, but many firefighters complain these providers are not schooled in PTSD treatment, Vicki Minor says. “I’ve had several of these men say that they had to pay for a therapist out of their own pocket,” she says.
The Forest Service recently published pocket-sized pamphlets with tips on traumatic stress and resilience. But the guides offer nothing about where to seek help if necessary, except to cite websites from the Department of Veterans Affairs and private suicide support groups.
Forest Service Fire Management Director Harbour says the deaths of the 19 Prescott firefighters were a wake-up call on the emotional stress firefighters may incur. “How do we deal with what we carry after we go through a traumatic incident?” he asks.
He and his staff have turned to the Marine Corps for ideas about building emotional resilience in firefighters. He urged in a briefing paper to senior officials that “we have developed wonderful new tools to help physically protect firefighters. Now is the time to ‘build a better brain!'”
He and his staff have turned to the Marine Corps for ideas about building emotional resilience in firefighters. He urged in a briefing paper to senior officials that “we have developed wonderful new tools to help physically protect firefighters. Now is the time to ‘build a better brain!'”
The land management agencies should consider developing an experimental program with the Department of Veterans Affairs that would take advantage of their existing PTSD treatment facilities, such as the one at the VA Hospital in Hot Springs, South Dakota, the “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Residential Rehabilitation Program”. Send a few firefighters with PTSD symptoms to a facility such as this and then evaluate the possible benefits.
On July 7, 2013, 19 hearses carried the remains of the Granite Mountain Hotshots back to Prescott, Arizona. Photo by Bill Gabbert.
Coors Protect Our West campaign. TNS advertising photo.
The MillerCoors company has started a campaign to donate money to an organization that supports wildland firefighters. Images like the one above are appearing on trucks and billboards in some western states.
Through the Coors Banquet “Protect Our West” program, the company will contribute 25 cents to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation (WFF) for every case of the beer sold in select states in the Western region throughout July and August, up to $250,000. The non-profit WFF assists firefighters and the families of firefighters injured or killed while battling vegetation fires.
The 25-cents-per-case donation applies to cases of Coors Banquet sold in Alaska, Arizona, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington.
From comments on the WFF Facebook page, it appears that the firefighter featured in the photo is Josh Ross who has worked on the Roosevelt Hotshots. In keeping with the tradition of firefighters buying beer for their comrades if their photo is seen in public media, a “jury” decided that Mr. Ross must buy two kegs of beer by the end of the season. “The jury went easy on me”, he wrote.
In other efforts to donate funds to the WFF, during July and August Coors Banquet will donate $100 for every double play turned by the Seattle Mariners to the Foundation. The company anticipates donating over $5,000 during the course of the campaign. And, the Arizona Wilderness Brewing Company will give $1 to the WFF for every pint of a special beer they recently introduced that is named after the Slide Fire which burned near Oak Creek Canyon north of Sedona, Arizona in May.
If you have not already, please join, or re-join, the 52 Club to help the WFF support firefighters and the families of firefighters injured or killed while on the job.
