One week ago today, I was walking through my house, thinking to myself…what will draw people in? How can I get people to stop at my booth? Then…it dawned on me. Candy…and shiny antique fire extinguishers. So, I packed up my van with the FirefighterWife.com banner and all of my informational postcards and headed east toward Daytona Beach. I was all set and I was pumped as there’s nothing I love more than sharing our group with people.
Since it was only an hour drive, my fireman and I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle of boarding the dog nor worth the money to stay overnight. As we pulled into the convention center, we walked right in to the registration table, got our badges and proceeded to snake through the rest of the vendors who were setting up. Some of the booths were super-professional looking and some of the booths were just manned by the sweetest, most genuine people but lacked the glitz and glory of the major vendors…which is just fine by me…I’ll take a hug and a prayer any day over flashing lights. We finally make it to our booth and the first words out of my mouth were, “Where’s the table?” Yep…rookie mistake. Apparently, EVERYTHING costs money to rent. So, we were left with no table and thus no way to effectively set up our booth. We hung up the banner, locked down the candy and shiny fire extinguishers and started to leave for the day.
I thought my fireman would kill me for driving an hour…just to turn around and walk away. And then…I suggested we go see his “baby.” Here’s the deal, he was there on business too. He just finished designing a new rescue unit with Wheeled Coach, and they had his “girl” on display. And let me tell you, she is beautiful. I know so much more about her than I ever thought I would know about a rescue unit. And I have to say, I beamed with pride as we walked up and I saw a smile come across my fireman’s face. All of his hard work and ideas are finally ready to be shared and seen and used.
Okay, enough about him…back to the important work of FirefighterWife.com. Day 2 started bright and early with the trade show floor opening at 10AM. We got there a little early to finish setting up the booth (yes, we remembered the table this time). It looked pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Within the first 20 minutes of setting up, this young fireman in his department t-shirt and kilt came by. He said, “My wife and I were just married in June and she said she’d kill me if I didn’t stop by your booth and thank you for the impact your group has had on her.” He said that she has found so much strength and support from our ladies and he can’t thank us enough. It literally almost made me cry…and I wasn’t ashamed to tell him that.
Throughout the day, I’d see firemen walk by slowly (probably distracted by the shiny stuff) and I’d ask if they had a girlfriend, fiancee or wife. Every single one would chuckle and try to speed up and walk by…but I was there on a mission and I wasn’t going to let them walk away without hearing my heart. I told them how this group has a mission to change the divorce rate in the fire service (many of them were surprised to hear that it’s as high as 75%) and also to encourage fire wife friendships. I’d talk about my own personal story and how this group has helped me through everything from blending our family to coping with worry and fear. The more I shared, the more interested they became. And I can’t tell you the number of firemen that said how desperately needed our group was. I made sure one thing was very clear to each guy I spoke with…we are not man bashers…we love our husbands and we are proud of our husbands. They really appreciated that part of it.
One of the highlights of day 2 was looking down the aisle and seeing a woman wearing one of our blue fire wife hoodies! I was so excited that I immediately ran over, told her I recognized that hoodie and gave her a HUGE fire wife hug. She follows the Facebook page, so I took a moment to tell her about the Sisterhood and all the benefits you get from joining for less than 2 cups of coffee a month. She smiled, said they had some big changes coming to their family with the addition of a little one and she’d check it out.
As day 2 came to a close, I was joined by a member of our Sisterhood, Morgan Casey. This girl is sweet as pie and full of love for her man. It was so nice to hug her in person and catch up since the last time we saw each other. As the two of us chatted, we had wives coming by with their guys and we were able to share with them directly how the group has helped us. We talked about how our guys say we are, “so much nicer now.” And we know…it’s because of the support and encouragement we get from the Sisterhood.
Saturday came quick…and although I had spent the day before sharing the love with the firemen and wives that came by, I had a different mission in mind. With the help of Rhonda Samples and Morgan, my mission for Saturday was to make industry connections. Help others that provide goods and services to our fire departments understand the importance of our group and hopefully find opportunities for sponsorship. You see, although our memberships help keep things going, in order to pull off a national event like Flame Fest 2014, we need sponsorship and partnerships. If you have a business connection or own a business and would like to help make our fire wife dreams come true, check out our sponsorship package and give us an opportunity to connect with you and share our mission. We are changing lives, strengthening marriages and building friendships.
With much fire wife love, I’m signing off…and already planning my next event to share the love and spread the gospel.
~Heather
Jessie -
Latest posts by Jessie - (see all)
- Fire Wife Wisdom {On Duty Communication Plan} - July 11, 2021
- New Traditions in the Face of a Covid Thanksgiving - November 19, 2020
- Fire Family Protocols: Lessen the Spread of Contagions from the Firehouse to Home - March 19, 2020
I love it! Can’t wait to share the love in a couple weeks at Fire House World!