The Memorial Foundation Report
Sorry about the missing article in the last edition. I learned a valuable lesson with confirmation (or not) of a sent email. If you just read my first sentence, then learning did take place. I want to give a big shout-out to Greg Wright who submitted his notice to retire from the Foundation on April 1st but then agreed to a 45-day extension. In addition to being one of those “GO TO” people for so many things over the years, Greg also managed the Treasury of the Foundation for the past four years. We wish you and Brenda the best in your semi-retirement and relocation to the Branson area.
The Foundation has entered into a contractual agreement with Melissa Old to take over as our Treasurer. She works in the large grants department for the University of Missouri, resides in Ashland, and just retired from their city council. This will be a 1099 position with the Foundation. The official date of Greg handing over the checkbook is now May 16th. Welcome aboard Melissa!
BIG NEWS!
We are excited to announce that the Foundation has its own website. Travis Johnson, who manages the FFAM website and works with Gail on the FFAM Magazine just completed the construction. It is still being tweaked and more to come but most of the basic framework of the project is in place and working. Please check things out at https://mofirememorial-museum.org/.
We also have links set up for you to order and pay for bricks, wall engravings, Foundation merchandise, and special promotional items. There are quick links to other supporting services and organizations. At the top right of the page are links to the Memorial, Museum, Visit, Contact, Shop, and a search bar. Please check us out and explore the full dropdown options of the entire page.
In our effort to improve and retain a consistent visual look and feel of the memorial grounds in 2024, we have partnered with a contractor that can focus on the green spaces and assist with general grounds maintenance comprising the memorial and museum. The ability to do so solely within the Foundation Board is no longer possible due to additional operational responsibilities and continued limitations with time/distance. This year we have partnered with Truescape, LLC out of Fulton.
To minimize the continued loss of gifting opportunities with Missouri fire service memorabilia ending up in a garage sale or E-bay vs. your future statewide fire museum and education center, we are open for any and all conversations on this topic. The keynote is starting a CONVERSATION. First, it would have to be a donation with no special requirements other than the contributors’ name being recognized. We have had to say no to some generous offers that were not yet of a historical classification by age, too common with those items already duplicated in our inventory and second printings of some books versus first editions. We also have limited ability right now to restore trucks to museum quality that have badly declined but hope that changes in the future. At least ask the question regarding the 1930s and older. If you have an inventory of possible interest and are looking for a future second home, we would love to have that conversation.
In the past four months, we have added several additional followers to the museum page on Facebook, and are nearing 650. If you have not seen the landing page, please check us out. In another development, we received over $1,300 in donations to the memorial from the 2023 CoMoGives Campaign. As with so many expenses, it requires donations from so many sources to keep the bills paid and move forward. Internally, we pledged to give this a three-year commitment, so one more time for sure in 2024 and then evaluate.
SAVE TWO DATES
The first is September 14th. The Missouri Fire Service Charity BBQ is raising money for the Missouri Firefighters Cancer Support Network and the Museum Project. The event will be held at the Museum in Kingdom City (5550 Dunn Drive). In addition to the competition, there will be a variety of great food, children and family activities. For those attending, we hope this presents an opportunity to bring greater awareness to your memorial and the future museum and education center. Plus a greater awareness regarding the annual honors that are provided to our firefighters who have served and passed.
Then three weeks later please join us for the 2024 Memorial Services on Saturday, October 5th at 7:00 p.m. for the Candlelight Services and Sunday morning October 6th service at 10:30 a.m. Going forward, our annual services will be guided by the first Sunday in October with the Candlelight Service occurring the evening before. We will be honoring over 100 names from 2023 plus a few that were previously missed in our last service. If you have any questions about the October services, please contact me at keith.smith1974@yahoo.com or 314-709-0760. For engraving forms and information, you can go to our new website at mofirememorial-museum.org or contact me directly.
If you were not able to visit us during the fourth quarter of 2023 and your 2024 spring/summer travels bring you anywhere close to Kingdom City, please stop in and check out the improvements from last year. More to follow in 2024.
Thank you for your time and continued support of your memorial and future museum.
FFAM
