National Volunteer Fire Council

And it's just one of these programs that really honestly makes sense when you think about what it is and what we do.

So we launched the Good Neighbor Firefighter Safety Program in 2024, and we do that in collaboration with the National Volunteer Fire Council.

And so really it's to help these resource-constrained volunteer fire departments to secure that needed equipment.

In 2026, State Farm continued its $1.5 million commitment.

And I've had the pleasure of listening to you speak several times.

And one thing that really resonates with me, the last two times I've listened to you speak at the NVFC conference is you talk about you know, fire departments getting on social media or firemen and tearing each other down.

And that doesn't solve anything.

And I wholeheartedly agree.

that was just not enough you know for us so we have our guys and and i've been i've been told directly by other firemen um that this is stupid and we're killing our membership but we require our members to do 60 hours a year now we teach in-house over 200 hours of training a year And our training budget is I think our third largest line item on the budget.

And our training officer will send people anywhere to do any class that they want to do.

You know, he pays for me to go to the NVFC conference.

You know, that comes out of his training budget.

But as president, I will always stand behind those who stand on the front lines of law enforcement, fighting fires, all of the things that you people do so courageously.

And now I want to ask the chairman of the National Volunteer Fire Council, Steve Hirsch, who's a great guy, to come up and say a few words.

And I hear he has something very special that he'd like to do.

And I don't know what that is, but maybe it involves me and maybe it doesn't.

Yesterday, uh, there was a Rose Garden ceremony.

Steve Hirsch, National Volunteer Fire Council representative, presented something to the president.

So while this helmet protects us in a fire or a wreck, we want it to protect you.

We want God to wrap his protective arm around you, and use this helmet.

So America owes our first responders a debt it can never fully repay, but as president, I will always stand behind those who stand on the front lines of law enforcement, fighting fires, all of the things that you people do so courageously.

And now I want to ask the chairman of the National Volunteer Fire Council, Steve Hirsch, who's a great guy, to come up and say a few words.

And I hear he has something very special that he'd like to do, and, um, I don't know what that is, but maybe it involves me and maybe it doesn't.

I hope it does.

Chief Ernest Malone, who is the chief of the Indianapolis Fire Department but also the first vice president of the IAFC.

John Cunningham, who is the executive director of the North American Training Directors, and Sarah Lee, who is the CEO of the National Volunteer Fire Council.

A nice cross-section of the fire service.

We had, we addressed health and safety, what's the future there? We addressed, uh, municipal chiefs, what, what's there? We n- we addressed training, we addressed the, the volunteer side.