SPOKES VOL. LXVII NO. 46
http://www.southhavenrotary.
President Thompson began our virtual meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. Pastor Jeffrey Dick provided our invocation this morning, asking for a day of joy and for blessings for our local First Responders and continued prayers for Mike Livovich and Jane Copping and for prayers for his daughter Kianna and her family who were in a car accident.
Our guests this morning included new member Emily Gruber and our speaker Brandon Hinz
Announcements:
Our Sneak Peek at Bronson has been rescheduled for next week.
Members should have received a letter about our Kenya project this weekend with the news that we have had to resubmit our grant and are looking for about $4200 in new funding.
Our new officer induction ceremony will take place on July 6th at 7:00 at Stanley Johnson Park. It will be an informal gathering with light refreshments. Bring chairs.
The board will be voting on a proposal to partner with the Kiwanis Club in holding a pancake breakfast during Blueberry Festival this summer. (See the email sent to members after today'sd meeting.)
Thursday’s social hour has been moved from ZOOM to Stanley Johnston Park. Beginning at 10:00. Bring your own chair and beverage.
Work continues to honor Bob Stickland and funds for a memorial statue are still being raised.
50/50 and Fines
Brandon Hinz was called on to select the big prize winners this week and called out Jim Davis’s number for the big prize and Tom Noverr’s for the $2 prize.
Fines were charged to:
Steve Miles for his mom’s birthday.
Jeffrey Dick and his lovely wife Lynn will be celebrating their 44th anniversary Friday.
Jim Davis has a granddaughter celebrating a birthday this week.
Kaleigh Eddy’s daughter Alexis will turn 17 on Friday..
Larry Wittkop is on vacation this week so we had to do individual Happy Birthday songs, muted, fortunately.
Our speaker this morning was introduced by Tom Renner. Brandon Hinz is a long-time firefighter, having joined SHAES in 1999 and becoming full time in 2005. He has been Chief for just about a year. SHAES servers an area of 95 square miles from South Haven City and Township to Geneva and Casco Townships.
Brandon began his presentation by telling us what SHAES has been up to. They made 2358 calls in 2020 including 1730 EMS calls and 628 Fire calls. Some of the fire calls are “assistance calls” to help with movement of citizens who have fallen or can’t otherwise move because of medical situations. They are already up by 269 total calls from last year in 2021.
Brandon also talked about the Beach Flag system and the crew that is responsible for keeping them up-to-date. The flags are up by 9:00 AM each day and are changed whenever conditions change, sometimes several times a day. There is also a QR code that can be scanned that will give you current conditions and a simple text to 888-777 with the message BEACHES that will provide that same information and will send out updates when things change or if there is an emergency along our waterways.
They now have their third drone, this one with infrared technology and an emergency drop system that will drop an inflatable flotation device to struggling swimmers.
SHAES has distributed thousands of beach safety placemats to local eateries and to local summer rentals and have been very pleased to see them all around time. The Rotary logo has been added to the placemat to be distributed this summer.
They just completed a pancake breakfast fundraiser which raised $3400 towards the purchase of an “Aqua Eye” underwater sonar scanner which will help locate victims underwater so they can be saved or recovered. The remainder of the cost of the scanner will be secured through donations or grants.
Training is a critical part of their activities and in 2020 they completed 3,000 hours of training and already have 2400 hours this year. In addition EMS personnel have continuing education requirements they have to meet. Training includes everything from actual firefighting training to learning how to fly the drones and pop up training situations for a variety of situations. They also train with the SHPD. They are currently training five ne divers.
Brandon displayed a picture of our new Rescue truck, recently delivered from Spencer’s Manufacturing.
He also announced that SHAES will be providing free CPR training for members of the community.
They are always looking for future firefighters and have a cadet program that works with the Van Buren Tech Center which offers programs in firefighting and basic EMS training, to get candidates prepared to jump right in.
Finally, Brandon expressed his, and the entire department’s appreciation of our own Tom Renner. Tom has been associated with South Haven Fire and then SHAES for many years and provides much time, publicity and advice to his team. As usual, great job Tom!
President Thompson thanked Brandon for his informative update and let him know that our speaker’s gift is in the mail.
President Thompson adjourned the meeting with the Four Way Test at 8:00 AM
NEXT WEEK: Stephanie Kohler from Lory’s Place will be our presenter.
- Editarian: Dene Hadden