The Joe Adam family traveled from all over the country to receive a statue and past-due tribute for the life of Joe Adam, and recognition of his death that occurred in 1959. Joe Adam was killed in the line of duty and had served as a USFS Ranger in the Prescott National Forest in Arizona.

Neda Adam and her children were able to honor and remember their dad, and Neda, her husband.  When the Forest Service showed up to give Neda the news about Joe, she was overcome with grief and sadness, and immediately left the house they had shared, packed up a few belongings and left with their three children.  She was a young bride, who had just a few short years with Joe.  Receiving a statue in recognition of his service, and death while fighting wildland fires, helped the family to pay proper tribute to him.

Sunday marked the “end” of our 2nd Annual Family Day Event in Boise for our survivor family members. We had 70+ individual family members and 30+ support crew/staff on hand. What an amazing experience. The fire camp set up was well received and enjoyed by everyone. Families laughed, shared, cried, and healed with each other. They also played badminton, hiked, drank a beer, and sat around a campfire.

The kids activity tent on Saturday afternoon was busy with more than 12 kids (ages 3 to 16). T-shirts were decorated, rocks were painted, Smokey Bear shook hands and Smokey's story was read. As the younger kids grew tired, the older kids went on a hike around the Lucky Peak Nursery grounds. Fat “rock chucks”, a snake, and cat tails were seen for the first time by some kids. Rocks were skipped and for more than an hour, the kids laughed, joked, and teased each other. And some talked quietly about things they did with their dad's that are no longer here. Something as simple as a dad who would get a hot chocolate for his daughter so she could have "coffee" with him. Some truly amazing kids- thank you to their Moms for sharing them with us.

Ken Perry also attended to meet the families and talk to them about his reasons for running 104.8 miles. In his own quiet, unassuming way he told them he was doing this run to raise money for them and for those that will unfortunately come along and need our help, and in some small way, bring recognition to their firefighter and all wildland firefighters.

As the office was cleaned up Sunday afternoon and the families slowly walked through our doors to leave, we sadly realized it might be a whole year before we ’d see some of them again. We truly become attached to these families, we truly are a family. We had all the nostalgia, chatting, silliness, and in-depth emotional discussions of any family barbecue you would ever attend.

Thank you to the many family and community members who helped us bring Family Day 2006 to our survivors. You are all special, caring, and compassionate people.

Please don’t forget to make your pledge for Ken’s Run. Your support does make a difference and you are part of our family.

For more Family Day photos, please visit this page. More photos will be added in the next few days.

The Wildland Firefighter Foundation will be hosting their second annual Family Day event on May 20 and 21.  “We’re going to offer two days worth of activities,” states Vicki Minor, Foundation Executive Director.  “Some of our families travel so far-we wanted to make it worth their while to come all the way to Boise.  We’re gonna show the families what a real fire camp is like,” continues Minor.

Foundation staff have been busy getting in touch with catering and shower contractors along with enlisting volunteers with logistics background.  Being located across from the National Interagency Fire Center has many advantages for the Foundation – they get to snag all those retirees who have amazing skills and knowledge.

In 2005, nearly 130 survivor family members came to the Foundation’s office in Boise to meet other survivors, do some healing, and remember and recognize their fallen firefighter.  Family Day is a “cousin” to Memorial Weekend held in October and sponsored by the National Fallen Firefighter Foundation in Emmitsburg, Maryland. 

There are many families that hope to attend the event and the Foundation would like to get as many of them into Boise as possible.  “The amount of healing and friendship-building that occurs for the families is amazing.  They really come away feeling like they are not alone, they have someone to turn to, and there is a real community and bigger family they are a part of,” states Vicki Minor.  The Foundation encourages anyone in the wildland firefighter family to attend, as families enjoy meeting firefighters, hearing their stories, and learning more about what their son, daughter, wife, or husband did in the field.

If you would like to sponsor, volunteer, or help with Family Day in any way, please call the Foundation office at 208-336-2996.  This is a wildland firefighter event, your ticket to attend?  Wearin’ your green and yella…