St. John the Baptist Parish fire fighters are starting off the year with a bang.

We just finished a photo shoot for a firefighter calendar that is going to be a fundraiser for Relay For

Life. We hope to have them for sale by the middle of March. We are organizing a car wash on March

12, with the support of the Donut Hole, at 9 a.m. We are going to be participating in Relay For Life

with a dunking booth and a variety of other activities. Please come

out and support Relay For Life.

We also are selling Luminaries to light up the night of Relay For

Life.

Contact your local fire department if you have any questions.

I was walking in a cemetery one day visiting my grandfather, and I stumbled across this on a memorial by a grave.

The last alarm

My father was a fireman.

He drove a big red truck

and when he’d go to work each day

he’d say “Mother wish me luck.”

Then Dad would not come home again

’til some time the next day.

But the thing that bothered me the most

was the things some folks would say,”

A fireman’s life is easy,

he eats and sleeps and plays,

and sometimes he won’t fight a fire

for days and days and day’s.”

When I first heard these words

I was to young to understand

but I knew when people had trouble

Dad was there to lend a hand.

Then my father went to work one day

and he kissed us all goodbye

but little did we realize

that night we all would cry.

My father lost his life that night

when the floor gave way below

and I’d wondered why he’d risked his life

for someone he didn’t know.

But now I truly realize

the greatest gift a man can give

is to lay his life upon the line

so that someone else might live.

So as we go from day to day

and we pray to God above

say a prayer for your local Firemen.

He may save the one’s you love.

Michael Heath is president of the St. John Professional Firefighters Association.