NFPA Conference 2010

One of my favorite things to do is to be among, what I call, "my own kind." Residing in a small rural community, I don't often have the opportunity to visit with other fire safety educators personally, and  each year I look forward to the NFPA Conference.

This week I had the opportunity to be with members of NFPA's "Public Educator's Network" at the conference held in Las Vegas. This network, comprised of individuals from across the country (one representative from each state), attended a day long session of various informative workshops provided by the Public Education Division. Over the next few days, I look forward to sharing some exciting initiatives, tricks of the trade, and other information that is current and up-to-date that you will hopefully find useful. My notebook is jam packed full of ideas for fire safety programming ideas and activities that I learned during these workshops and I look forward to sharing.

Congratulations to Beverly Thompson, Public Education Specialist with DeKalb County Fire Rescue, (Tucker, Ga.) for being awarded The NFPA Fire and Life Safety Educator of the Year Award. This award recognizes a fire and life safety educator, who works for a local fire department, uses NFPA's materials in consistent and creative ways, demonstrates excellence and innovation in reaching out to the community, and views NFPA as the source for safety information. Congratulations, Beverly!

And finally, for all you out there gearing up for this year's Fire Prevention Week in October (it will be here before we know it!), the theme for NFPA's Fire Prevention Week is, "Smoke Alarms: A sound you can live with."

Stay safe and have a great day!