Too my Friend Sharon Gamache

Dave Renli, Executive Director, Sioux Empire Safety VillageSharon, the first time we met you were working for the National Safety Council specifically overseeing the Safety Sabbath Project. You remember this? We were at the National Fire Safety Education Conference in Crystal City 1981 I believe. I had a small display of something we were doing out here in South Dakota. Finding out you were from Sioux Falls, raised in the neighborhood with a number of my friends, well, we too became friends. I always appreciated that when you came to S.F. for a couple days you tried to get together with me. Moving on to NFPA you again became a friend and advocate for the work we have done out here in fly-over country. You recognized that High-Risk Audiences take on many attributes and what may be an issue in one area of the country is not the same in another. You also recognized that it is not only major population centers that have high risk audiences but even medium communities the size of like Sioux Falls can have significant issues. Ours obviously stems from immigrant and refugee populations representing over 100 languages which now make up about 15% of our total population. Dear Sharon, congratulations on a race well run. (I wont call it retirement because I know you will be involved where ever you land.) I hope to see you here in Sioux Falls soon. Be careful, I might try to put you to work if you stay very long. Dave Renli, Sioux Empire Safety Village.