{"id":59040,"date":"2014-12-24T08:12:20","date_gmt":"2014-12-24T13:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=59040"},"modified":"2014-12-24T08:12:20","modified_gmt":"2014-12-24T13:12:20","slug":"smoke-detector-campaign-said-successful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2014\/12\/24\/smoke-detector-campaign-said-successful\/","title":{"rendered":"Smoke detector campaign said successful"},"content":{"rendered":"

Van Wert independent\/submitted information<\/i><\/p>\n

This past year was the inaugural fund drive by the Van Wert County fire chiefs to purchase smoke detectors for students living in the county. The fund drive was called \u201cNo Child Sleeps Unprotected\u201d, and the idea gained traction with a $2,000 grant from the Van Wert County Foundation, which also agreed to handle the funds for the account.<\/p>\n

The campaign ended with an amazing $25,000 grant from Eaton Corporation, while in between were donations from churches, industry, businesses, unions and individuals.<\/p>\n

\"Van
Van Wert Fire Chief Jim Steele with Van Wert Elementary School students holding their smoke detectors. (submitted photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nearly $50,000 was collected in the first eight months of the year, which led to the purchase of over 3,900 smoke detectors, which were distributed to students in grades kindergarten through ninth grade. The distribution included students from Crestview, Delphos Jefferson, Delphos St. Johns, LifeLinks Community, Lincolnview, Parkway, Spencerville, Van Wert and Wayne Trace schools.<\/p>\n

The county fire departments and local schools handled the distribution of the smoke detectors, and the fire chiefs noted that their focus was to try to have an installed and working smoke detector in every student\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to purchase smoke detectors with a 10-year battery and distribute them out to the students; however, parents or guardians need to install them,\u201d said Van Wert Fire Chief Jim Steele. \u201cThis is very important, as properly placed, operational smoke detectors will increase survivability of a home\u2019s occupants by 50 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many of the school districts have students from multiple fire jurisdictions, and in Van Wert City Schools both Ohio City and Van Wert fire departments sent personnel on site to assist in distribution.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had some phenomenal cooperation from the community,\u201d Chief Steele noted. \u201cVan Wert Fire Equipment presented us with the ability to purchase the smoke detectors at their costs.\u00a0 Walmart and Hat Creek Arena did multiple fill the boot days for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Firefighters from Convoy and Wren were especially active in the communities soliciting funds.<\/p>\n

The goal in this coming year is smaller, although just as important: to purchase smoke detectors for the incoming kindergarteners and any new students to the district in grades K-9. The fire chiefs estimate the cost of doing so to be approximately $5,000. Donations are tax-deductible and need to be directed to the County Smoke Detector Fund at the Van Wert County Foundation, 138 E. Main St., Van Wert, OH 45891.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Van Wert independent\/submitted information This past year was the inaugural fund drive by the Van Wert County fire chiefs to purchase smoke detectors for students living in the county. The fund drive was called \u201cNo Child Sleeps Unprotected\u201d, and the idea gained traction with a $2,000 grant from the Van Wert County Foundation, which also […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 11:04:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59040\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}