JACKSONVILLE, Ore-- Thanks to the help of a student-run foundation, the Jacksonville Fire Station will no longer have to worry about losing power again.
Earlier this year (2022), the Jacksonville Fire Station received $76,000, from the Josephine County Foundation to help purchase not only a compressor, an extractor and exercise equipment, but also a new back up emergency generator to help the station in case of a power outage.
Back in 2020 during the Almeda Fire, the Jacksonville Fire Station lost power for several hours. During that time, firefighters and volunteers had to use flashlights and radio's to function, as hundreds of people pour into the city, trying to escape the flames.
But now with a new emergency generator on the way, which should be installed sometime this late November or early December, Jacksonville Fire and Fire Chief Wayne Painter will never have to worry about losing power again.
"With the generosity of the Josephine County Foundation & Pacific Power, we will be able to provide our citizens with service even if we lose power," said Chief Painter.
"It is extremely important," said Alan Meyer of Pacific Power.
Since 2014, local high school students who run the nonprofit Josephine County Foundation (JCF) have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy fire trucks, hoses, breathing apparatuses, and “jaws of life” rescue tools for 13 mostly volunteer fire departments in forested, wildfire-affected Josephine and Jackson counties.
During the last three years, recent Hidden Valley Graduate and JCF student president Hannah Bennett has been working to help out some of those smaller stations.
Bennett, a Murphy resident, told NewsWatch 12 before joining the foundation, she understood how important it is to get smaller fire stations the equipment they need to protect their local communities. Which is one of the main reasons she decided to join JCF more than three years ago.
"With that equipment they are keeping my family and my friends and our community safe," said Bennett.
On May 16, 2022 JCF announced that Bennett and students like her raised $100,000, through grants and fundraising, to give to local fire stations across Jackson and Josephine Counties. But thanks to an anonymous local donor, another $100,000 was donated to JCF to match the funds that they raised.
Over the course of the last several years, Bennett told NewsWatch 12 that her favorite part about being apart of this problem has been meeting all of the wonderful people across all the local fire stations that they've helped.
"The amount of people that I've met through this foundation has helped me grow so that I can help out others in the community," said Bennett.
Fire agencies that will receive funding through JCF's 2022 Fire SAFE grants include, Applegate Valley Fire #9, Greensprings Fire & Rescue, Jacksonville Fire, Prospect Rural Fire Protection District, the Butte Falls Fire Department and the Williams Rural Fire Protection District.
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Brett joined the NewsWatch 12 team as a reporter in July of 2020.
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