Congratulations to Candace Hueser, the 2009 recipient of the Budz-Guenter Scholarship.  At a recent session of City Council, Candace was presented with her scholarship by His Worship Mayor Don Atchison and Local 80 President Bruce Siemens.  She is the daughter of Fire Service Instructor Wilbur Hueser, and is the 29th recipient of this Scholarship.

The Budz Guenter Scholarship was first presented in 1981, and is awarded to the child of a member of the Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services.  The scholarship was established by Local 80 and the City of Saskatoon to honor the memory of Victor Budz and Dennis Guenter, two Local 80 brothers who lost their lives at the Queen's Hotel on May 31, 1980.  The Queen's Hotel once stood where the Galaxy Theater is now located.

On September 10th a group of Local 80 firefighters were in attendance at City Hall to show their support for His Worship Mayor Don Atchison.  Mayor Atchison spoke to a group of supporters and the media about his intentions to run for re-election.

Local 80 is pleased with the working relationship with council and their continued support of our issues, therefore an executive motion was made and passed by the members to support the Mayor and all encumbent members of council.

All members of Local 80 regularily contribute to FIREPAC, which is an international fund through the IAFF that is used for political action in the United States and Canada.  Local 80 was able to get some money through FIREPAC to purchase signs and shirts.

The civic election is on October 28th.

Local 80 and Saskatoon Fire and Protective Services are taking a big step toward improving the health of their members.  On October 19th through the 23rd, Local 80 and SFPS will be hosting a Peer Fitness Trainer course, which will include twelve Saskatoon Firefighters and up to twenty fire personnel from other cities across Canada.  This intense course will give the Firefighters the knowledge and skills to work with members of their department to asses their fitness levels and help them develop programs to achieve their fitness goals.  The course is taught by two instructors from the IAFF who have been specially trained to deliver a firefighter specific training course.  Both Local 80 and SFPS are proud to take this unprecedented step in the name of wellness.

The Peer Fitness Trainer program is just one component of the larger Wellness Fitness Initiative developed by the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) and the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC).  These two organizations worked with ten Fire Departments across The United States and Canada to develop the Initiative which released its first edition in 1996.  Since 1996 there have been countless testimonials from departments all across North America where lives have been saved and sick time minimized by the various components of the WFI.  Numerous studies conducted have proven that the dollar amount saved in reduced sick time far outweighs the cost of implementing the program in a department, and for the members whose lives have been saved by the WFI, there is obviously no dollar amount can can compare. 

In a session of City Council on Monday July 13, council members approved an 18 per cent wage increase for all members of Local 80.  The increase will be broken up into four increases per year for the duration of the contract, which is two years.  Local 80's collective agreement with the city expired on December 31, 2008, and negotiations began in February 2009.  Through both the efforts of the City of Saskatoon and Local 80's negotiating commitees, a deal was reached by the end of June and was ratified through a vote by members of Local 80 on July 2.

 Though Gerry Wenzel served 35 years as a Saskatoon Firefighter, he didn't expect firefighters would ever save his life.  Wenzel went into cardiac arrest in March. A crew from No. 3 fire hall responded in two minutes, one second, and performed CPR and defibrillation. The 79-year-old Wenzel survived.  “I wouldn’t be here today if it hadn’t have been for their quick response,” Wenzel said.

When Capt. Doug Rea entered the house, one of the first things he noticed was the display of firefighters’ helmets on the wall.  “As soon as we walked into the house, it clicked in right away,” said the firefighter, who worked with Wenzel in the early days of his own career.  The second thing Rea did was take Wenzel’s wife Shirley away from the scene. She had made the call just minutes earlier after Gerry stopped responding and started making snoring noises. “It was the longest two minutes of my life,” she said. 

The couple had nothing but praise for the team that responded to her call.  “They were terrific,”she said of the firefighters’ quick save. “I never in my wildest dreams thought we would need to be rescued.”  In turn, the firefighters who rescued Wenzel hold the former assistant chief in high regard.  Rea became a firefighter in 1984, two years before Wenzel’s retirement.   “Gerry was always very good to me,” Rea said. “When you’re young and you get on the job you listen to what a lot of other people say . . . one thing I learned about Gerry is that he did his job very well.”