At the beginning of the year, Life+Gear received an email from The Little Ferry Fire Department, a fire department that was destroyed in the rage of Hurricane Sandy.
"Recently back in October 2012 our department was crushed by the Sandy Storm that basically left us with a bare minimum of equipment. Being a volunteer Fire Department our budget is very limited and the town will only supply replacement funds for our apparatus. Many of our firefighters lost most of their personnal equipment during the storm and it will take some doing to get it all replaced."
(3 days after)
Life+Gear wanted to help. So we sent the brave, volunteer, fire fighters of Little Ferry Fire Department Glow Sticks, Glow Flashlights (waterproof), 400 lumen heavy duty Highland Flashlights and Life+Gear blankets.
We heard back from the fire department and received the following email and photos.
"Here are some pictures of the guys after I gave them your donation.
The breakdown is as follows;
Each member has a glow stick for their turnout gear.
The floating lights are distributed among our boats and water gear.
Half of the blankets are on the rescue truck and the other half are for storm layover when we need to sleep in the firehouse.
The 400 lumen Highland flashlights;
Each chief, captain, lieutenant and safety officer has one for their turnout gear. There are two on each pumper, ladder truck, rescue truck and utility truck. With a few kept in storage for the future.
I explained the purpose of the floating light and the guys thought I was crazy so we went to an area of the firehouse that is being repaired and I tossed one of the lights in a container that was catching water from a leak, well your light worked perfectly and the guys were extremely impressed. Impressing these guys is a challenge and the lights and blankets were a big hit.
Just for a laugh the guys actually had a contest to see who could blow the whistle the longest and loudest, this may seem silly but a firefighter should always have a whistle with their gear just in case.
On behalf of the Little Ferry Fire Department I want to thank you and the people from Life Gear for this wonderful and very much needed donation. Our rebuild is moving along slowly and funds are very low, its people like yourself that make coping with situations like ours a little easier.
Once again thank you very much.
Alfred Gerber III
Safety Officer and ex Chief.
Little Ferry Fire Department "
Glad we could help!