The Owatonna Foundation visited the Owatonna Fire Department Thursday to thank them for their service to the Owatonna community and to learn about the life saving equipment that the Owatonna Foundation helped them purchase through a matching grant of $10,000.
Pictured here in the back row from left to right is Trustee Bill Beers, President Tom Dufresne, Firefighter Arik Brase, Vice President Dave Ramsey, and Trustee Brandon Wayne. Kneeling in the front row is Trustee Chad Lange, Firefighters Bob Hager and Ryan Seykora.
The Firefighters took some time to show the Foundation Trustees how the equipment works and how they would use the equipment in a lifesaving rescue situation.
Below is the picture of Bob Hager and Arik Brase showing the Trustees how the airbag portion of the equipment works.
The picture below is Bob Hager showing how the stabilizing portion of the equipment operates.
In the picture above, Ryan Seykora demonstrates how FoamCraft designed the storage units for the trucks and how the equipment is stored and maintained.
With support from local businesses and individuals, the Owatonna Foundation has awarded almost $13 million in grants and scholarships. All grants are designated for Capital Campaign projects in one of the Foundation’s four interest areas: Recreation, Arts, Education, and Community. With this grant for the Fire Department falling under the area of Community grants. The Foundation is just finishing up a successful 2021 Business Campaign and letters went out to individual donors on November 4th for the beginning of their 2021 Community Campaign. “We appreciate all of our donors so much and we are so proud of the philanthropic nature of our community of Owatonna” said Angela Gonzales with the Owatonna Foundation. “Without our amazing donors, grants like these for the Owatonna Fire Department would not be possible.”
“We are just so thankful to the Owatonna Foundation for their continued support. With a grant from 2020, we were able to purchase lockers for our gear and equipment (pictured on the left) and the grant this year helped us purchase life saving equipment for our fire trucks that we just trained on this week” Ryan Seykora explained. “We both have a mission of helping the Owatonna community and we are happy to have such a great organization like the Owatonna Foundation as one of our supporters”.
The Owatonna Foundation
The Foundation was established in 1957 with the goal of improving the quality of life for present and future generations of Owatonna residents. Since then, the Owatonna Foundation has committed close to $13 million dollars in grants and scholarships to local organizations and students. For more information about the Owatonna Foundation, to apply for a grant, or to donate, please visit our website at: www.owatonnafoundation.org or our Facebook page or call our office at 455-2995.