Tippy Pierce: OSFA Executive Director’s Report I can’t believe it’s been three month since my last article! Time has flown and here I am beginning to ponder what I need to write about. Well, here I go with what will or has happened around the OSFA. I was saddened to hear of the passing of one of our past employees of the Oklahoma Firefighters Museum. Eldon Forester, retired firefighter from Midwest City, was a great asset to the museum. Ret. Moore FD Eldon started work at the Museum in 1998 and continued until 2005. We were a team -- Sam Oruch, Eldon and myself. We gave tours in museum, sold Redbooks and kept the museum open. Plus, we kept the newly -constructed Fallen and Living Oklahoma Firefighters Memorial operating. Eldon and I talked many times about what a great time we had and working together. When Linda Forester was Oklahoma State Firefighters Women’s Auxiliary President in 1998, he was helping her with boxes to carry or anything they needed him to do. That was just what Eldon did for anyone or any part of the OSFA Organization. What a man he was! Servant to all.
Newly engraved Memorial Walls include Panel 40 (below) and Panels 48-51 (above)
OSFA hosted its annual Statewide Oklahoma Firefighters Memorial Service on Oct. 3, and the service was broadcasted on Facebook Live. The broadcast was going well until Facebook started having glitches and finally stopped the broadcast. Facebook was down until late the next day. This was the first time I had ever seen Facebook have this happen. We have fixed the Memorial Service footage where it stopped, so if you would like to see the entire Memorial Service, it is on our Facebook web page. We can report that we have added 1800+ names to Memorial walls and three names to the Wall of Valor. The 1800+ names were engraved on five panels. The OSFA Board also approved to touch up the 220 names on the Wall of Valor. All the names on the Memorial walls, including the most current ones, can be searched on the OSFA web page. Log on to www.osfa.info and go to the bottom of the page under Museum, then click on Memorial. A new page will come up, and simply scroll down to Memorial Wall Name Search. Then you can type in a name and find which wall your firefighter is on.
All of the Committees have been picked by the Executive Board and have started to meet and work on all of the matters of the OSFA. Thanks to the members and the chairman of these committees for their dedication to the association. Remember, to serve on one of these committees you need to apply and turn the paper work in to Madelyn Roth. She will turn them into the executive board for them to pick who will serve on one of these committees.
Beautification work done around the Memorial and Museum prior to the Statewide Memorial Service
The Volunteer Fire Service Committee is working hard to set the Fire Caucus agenda to cover needs that the volunteers have. If you’re a volunteer, remember these are free classes and education that can be close to you. We are moving them to different regions of the state so the volunteers can go when it not too far from their area. The 2022 OSFA Volunteer Caucus is set for Feb. 5 at the Kiamichi Tech Center in Atoka. If you have any fire bunkers or equipment, they will be doing a free equipment exchange. Last year, loads of items were brought in and very little was left to bring back to the museum. Until next edition, be safe. God Bless each and every one of you!
OSFA & Museum Staff
Executive Director Tippy Pierce tippy@osfa.info
Administrative Director Sheri Nickel sherin@osfa.info
Administrative Assistant/Membership Madelyn Roth madelynr@osfa.info
Administrative Assistant/Events Shelby NeSmith shelbyn@osfa.info
Museum Director Gene Brown geneb@osfa.info
Museum Assistant Quintin James quintinj@osfa.info
Museum Assistant Bob Noll bobn@osfa.info
Museum Assistant Brendon Pierce brendonp@osfa.info
Publications Museum Assistant Administrative Penelope Soldan Lance Gill Assistant penelopes@osfa.info lanceg@osfa.info Raegan Layne raeganl@osfa.info Oklahoma FirefighterNovember/December 2021/January 2022 11
