Wildland Firefighter Foundation Bike & Hike
Tax deductible
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the tragedy on the South Canyon Fire. 14 wildland firefighters lost their lives in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
It also marks my 25 years involved in wildland fire. When I returned home from Iraq as combat veteran, I needed a place I felt safe talking and working thru the challenges of combat and a deployment that lasted over a year and a half. My fire service organization, the VA, and even my own family could not help.
It was the wildland fire community and the Wildland Firefighter Foundation that helped put me back together again. Incident Management Team ICs from Region 4 that got me back on the line, digging in the dirt, hanging with people, and enjoying family again. Vicki and Burk became my family while I learned how to be "normal" again.
Sadly, just six years ago, our wildland firefighting community lost a mind-blowing 19...on one fire in Yarnell, Arizona. Many of us had hoped we would never experience a loss so great as South Canyon, yet here we were repeating history.
Since the summer of 1994, we have lost over 300 firefighters from all walks of the fire service on wildland fires. Career, volunteer, state, federal, and contractors. Engines, handcrews, helitack, smokejumpers, and support functions personnel have all experienced the loss at some level.
On June 10, 2019, I am beginning my hike & bike across Idaho. From Idaho Falls Fire Station 1, located at 343 E. Street (in remembrance of the 343 killed on 9/11) to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation in Boise, ID, reaching it on Friday 14, 2019.
Over 300 miles to remember the men and women killed from all walks of life in the wildland fire world. Sons and daughters, mothers and fathers...families who have given so much.
Will you help me raise $10,000.00 for the WFF and the families affected by the loss or injury of anyone in the fire service who responds to wildland fires?
It also marks my 25 years involved in wildland fire. When I returned home from Iraq as combat veteran, I needed a place I felt safe talking and working thru the challenges of combat and a deployment that lasted over a year and a half. My fire service organization, the VA, and even my own family could not help.
It was the wildland fire community and the Wildland Firefighter Foundation that helped put me back together again. Incident Management Team ICs from Region 4 that got me back on the line, digging in the dirt, hanging with people, and enjoying family again. Vicki and Burk became my family while I learned how to be "normal" again.
Sadly, just six years ago, our wildland firefighting community lost a mind-blowing 19...on one fire in Yarnell, Arizona. Many of us had hoped we would never experience a loss so great as South Canyon, yet here we were repeating history.
Since the summer of 1994, we have lost over 300 firefighters from all walks of the fire service on wildland fires. Career, volunteer, state, federal, and contractors. Engines, handcrews, helitack, smokejumpers, and support functions personnel have all experienced the loss at some level.
On June 10, 2019, I am beginning my hike & bike across Idaho. From Idaho Falls Fire Station 1, located at 343 E. Street (in remembrance of the 343 killed on 9/11) to the Wildland Firefighter Foundation in Boise, ID, reaching it on Friday 14, 2019.
Over 300 miles to remember the men and women killed from all walks of life in the wildland fire world. Sons and daughters, mothers and fathers...families who have given so much.
Will you help me raise $10,000.00 for the WFF and the families affected by the loss or injury of anyone in the fire service who responds to wildland fires?
Organizer
Bill Arsenault
Organizer
Nampa, ID
Wildland Firefighter Foundation
Beneficiary