National Volunteer Firefighter's Day/National Cut Your Energy Costs Day

Have you ever been awoken in the middle night to attend to the needs of someone else? Perhaps it’s a child, an elderly parent, or maybe you’re an in-home care worker. Imagine having to wake up at any given time of the night, or stop whatever you are doing at the drop of a hat to serve someone you probably don’t know. That’s the life of a volunteer firefighter. Today is Volunteer Firefighter’s Day. These men and women give back to their community when a need arises and for that, we thank them. Many of them have work, family and other commitments in addition to this role.

Today also happens to be Cut Your Energy Costs Day. The meaning behind this day is equally significant. Perhaps the impacts of this are realized easier than the work of a firefighter, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t as important to recognize. As talks of “Climate Change” and “Environmental Changes” increase, we all need to take a step back from our daily routine and see how we can reduce our influence on our present and future global state.  Cutting energy costs works in multiple ways. While we can benefit immediately by reducing our daily energy consumption, we also provide a small, but significant influence on the impacts of climate and/or environmental change caused by human actions. The thing about these heavy topics that I find most challenging is that we approach it as one large program, instead of facing it with smaller, more easily attainable goals and solutions. If we all reduced our energy consumption, the result would not be small, but in fact quite large! It may start with one, but what if we all were the one it starts with?

Interested in becoming a volunteer firefighter? Contact your local/provincial/state Fire Department for more information.

Interested in learning how to reduce your energy consumption? There are many initiatives to aid in this through governments, service providers, and non-profits.  A quick search online could put you in touch with any number of them! For a tangible way to see your carbon footprint, check out The Nature Conservancy’s Carbon Footprint Calculator.