When a message comes from the top, the message carries more clout. As luck would have it, North Las Vegas Fire Chief, Al Gillespie just so happens to be President and CEO of the International Association of Fire Chiefs. The bit of short term bad luck is that he is out of the office until next week. Can you imagine a message from Chief Gillespie I can carry to classrooms across the country and the impact it will have? It truly will not get any better! I will remain in the Las Vegas area to be able to get a few minutes of his time. This is a huge opportunity and well worth the wait to be able to speak with this man about Hero Firefighters across the nation.
Today, the ride to the North Las Vegas Fire Department Headquarters was as if I was in a parade as people shouted that they had seen The Kindness Bicycle on the news. My favorite vignette was Gina, a young woman with four young children insisting on buying me lunch; she had seen The Kindness Bicycle on TV a couple of times. She and I talked about her brother Erik who is currently serving his SIXTH deployment in Afghanistan and Iraq. That put everything I am trying to accomplish, in perspective. Thank you Erik, from all of us.