The Fort Bend Helping Heroes Charity began in 2011 as a reunion page on a social media site. The purpose of this group was to promote the upcoming 40th anniversary of service to the citizens of Fort Bend County by the Fort Bend County Emergency Medical Service. The reunion group promoted and fostered cooperation, fraternalism, harmony, and effective communication among present and past first responders of Fort Bend County EMS, administrative staff, and local government. The reunion group page was effective in reaching out to many of those who served this great community over the past 40 years. The anniversary celebration was a huge success. Friendships were rekindled, and the fraternal bond grew stronger among those who wore the uniform.

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Through consistent and real time communication via the reunion group, the members saw a need among its members. FBC EMS first responders suffered losses from the wild fires of central Texas and flooding. Injury and illness were taking a toll on our first responder family as well. Fundraisers were organized by family members and close friends. First responders began helping other first responders. Talk of organizing and establishing a charity for FBC EMS past and present employees to assist in times of emergencies, natural disaster, injury and illness began to gain momentum.

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On August 26th 2017, Hurricane Harvey, a category 4 hurricane made landfall on San Jose Island just east of Rockport. Two days prior, the county Judge ordered all essential personnel to report to duty and this includes the personnel of FBC EMS. Mandated to remain at their post until the crisis was over, EMS personnel remained on duty for up to 7 days. Their families would have to fend for themselves. The flood was devastating. The group worked closely with the Administration of FBC EMS to identify 11 of our local heroes who suffered the most from the hurricane. The Reunion Group rallied together, as well as the rest of the nation to assist our community and surrounding 50 counties. Through donations and distribution of t-shirts and challenge coins, the reunion group raised a total of $6,800, in addition to collecting bottled water, clothing, children’s toys, and food items in hopes of alleviating some of their financial burden.

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Fort Bend Helping Heroes Charity soon transitioned from an idea to a reality. Our Mission: Keeping FBC EMS First Responders whole physically and mentally through educational and financial assistance; Assisting Fort Bend County First Responders through disasters, crises or emergencies; Assisting their families impacted by a Line of Duty Death in our community, and; Provide assistance to the sometimes-forgotten heroes in our community, our First Responders.

The physical and mental toll our local heroes will suffer are potentially career ending. Disabling injury and debilitating PTSD are just one call away for our FBC EMS heroes. A survey of more than 4,000 first responders found that 6.6% had attempted suicide, which is more than 10 times the rate in the general population, according to a 2015 article published in the Journal of Emergency Medical Services.

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Our Local heroes are available for your emergency 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year. Fort Bend Helping Heroes Charity wants to be available for our local heroes equally the same. Our Board of Directors have a combined 80 plus years of experience at FBC Emergency Medical Service. We have worn the uniform. We are committed to our mission to our FBC EMS Heroes, past and present. Compassion, Empathy, Teamwork, Innovation, Professionalism, Safety. These are the core values of Fort Bend County Emergency Medical Service. These values remain with our brothers and sisters long after the uniform comes off. The successes of the FBC EMS reunion group and the transition into Fort Bend Helping Heroes Charity has demonstrated that. Your Support is greatly appreciated. Our local heroes are called to help families in our community. Help us help our family, your local heroes.

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Sincerely,

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Al Burciaga, EMT-P

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Director/President of Fort Bend Helping Heroes

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Privacy Notice

 

This privacy notice discloses the privacy practices for www.fbhelpingheroescharity.org. This privacy notice applies solely to information collected by this website. It will notify you of the following:

1. What personally identifiable information is collected from you through the website, how it is used and with whom it may be shared.

-We only collect data that is voluntarily submitted such as: email address and names for the newsletter, which can be opted out at any time by replying “STOP”.

-Links to paypal for purposes of donations. We do not collect emails or personal information from paypal donations.

-In the future: information such as: name, address, email address, credit card/paypal links for donations for items.

-We do not save credit card or personal information for future use or sale to third parties. Ever.

 

1. What choices are available to you regarding the use of your data.

-You may opt-out of using links and email lists.

 

1. The security procedures in place to protect the misuse of your information.

-You use standard paypal and encryption provided by Wix.com

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1. How you can correct any inaccuracies in the information.

-You may contact ffhelpingheroescharity@gmail.com and request corrections to your data. We will be happy to assist in any way that we’re able.

 

Information Collection, Use, and Sharing 
 

We are the sole owners of the information collected on this site. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you. We will not sell or rent this information to anyone.

We will use your information to respond to you, regarding the reason you contacted us. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request, e.g. to ship a donation request.

Unless you ask us not to, we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.

Your Access to and Control Over Information 
You may opt out of any future contacts from us at any time. You can do the following at any time by contacting us via the email address or phone number given on our website:

 

• See what data we have about you, if any.

• Change/correct any data we have about you.

• Have us delete any data we have about you.

• Express any concern you have about our use of your data.

 

Security 
We take precautions to protect your information. When you submit sensitive information via the website, your information is protected both online and offline.

Wherever we collect sensitive information (such as credit card data), that information is encrypted and transmitted to us in a secure way. You can verify this by looking for a lock icon in the address bar and looking for "https" at the beginning of the address of the Web page.

While we use encryption to protect sensitive information transmitted online, we also protect your information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, billing or customer service) are granted access to personally identifiable information.

If you feel that we are not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact us immediately via telephone at 281-344-7377 or via fbhelpingheroescharity@gmail.com.

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