Cedar Firefighters Receive Grant For Breathing Machines

Probably a good time to thank first responders, because there is never a wrong time. Firefighters, one of my favorite topics to cover ever, do incredible work to protect people from harm, even though many of them are volunteers. And they do the work they do on small budgets, with many houses relying on donations and grants to get what they need. This can mean relying on older equipment, or not having the latest in technology that could save time and lives.

Four fire departments in Cedar, Michigan, have been awarded a grant of nearly $350,000 to update specific essential equipment. Cedar Area, Leland, Leelanau, and Blair Township fire departments received a federal grant to be used to cover 90% of the cost of new breathing equipment. The previously used equipment was over ten years old, and very much needed to be replaced.

This grant comes from the U.S Department of Homeland Security Assistance to Firefighters Grant, which a grant jointly administered by The U.S Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as well as Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Firefighter

Here’s what the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program is:

“The AFG Program awards grants directly to fire departments, non-affiliated emergency medical services (EMS) organizations, and State Fire Training Academies (SFTAs) to enhance the health and safety of first responders and improve their abilities to protect the public from fire and fire-related hazards.

This grant will go to cover 90% of this new breathing equipment, while the townships will cover 10% themselves. And this is essential equipment because these air packs go on the firefighters’ backs and are used in any fire or disaster-related event where it will be hard for firefighters to breathe in.

Bill Parker, the fire chief for Blair Township Emergency Services, had this to say about this grant being awarded to cover the cost of the breathing machines:

Our departments and our firefighters will have the best technology that they’re wearing and pretty much, it’s their lifeline as they’re going into an environment where they can’t breathe, this is what allows them to breathe in those situations,”

Grants for Firefighters and first responders

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Libby Hikind

Libby Hikind is the founder and CEO of GrantWatch.com and the author of "The Queen of Grants: From Teacher to Grant Writer to CEO". Libby Hikind, began her grant writing career while working as a teacher in the New York City Department of Education. She wrote many grants for her classroom before raising millions for a Brooklyn school district. Throughout her professional career, she established her own grant writing agency in Staten Island with a fax newsletter for her clients of available grants. After retiring from teaching, Libby embraced the new technology and started GrantWatch. She then moved GrantWatch and her grant writing agency to Florida to enjoy her parents later years, and the rest is history. Today more than 230,000 people visit GrantWatch.com online, monthly.