A year ago, Montgomery County was invited to join the BackStoppers organization, which has helped plenty of families of first responders such as police officers, firefighters and EMS workers.
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A year ago, Montgomery County was invited to join the BackStoppers organization, which has helped plenty of families of first responders such as police officers, firefighters and EMS workers.
Now, the county has its first board of directors.
Airianna Brewer, Will Burke, Paul Eveland, Dan Gevermuehle and Sherry Lato were appointed as members of the Montgomery County BackStoppers board on March 1 at the Montgomery County Fire Protection District building.
Burke is the treasurer and Brewer is the assistant treasurer. The board members will work to plan fundraising and public education for the BackStoppers. They also are working to obtain nonprofit status.
Based in St. Louis, the BackStoppers were founded in 1959 and have helped over 180 families since then.
“If a tragic event happens and a first responder is killed in the line of duty, they will take care of everything as far as financial needs for the first responder’s family for the rest of their lives,” said Jeff Edwan, assistant chief of the Jonesburg-High Hill Fire Protection District. “They’ll pay for kids’ schooling, they’ll pay off mortgages and they pretty much take care of the family.”
Edwan said he was contacted by Jeff Backhaus, who is the former chief of the Marthasville Fire District, to see if the county was interested in joining the organization.
“He was involved with the Warren County BackStoppers,” Edwan said. “The BackStoppers organization decided to expand five more counties in Missouri, which brought them to Montgomery and Gasconade counties, and five in Illinois. He knew me and he contacted me. We discussed what he needed from us. I became the liaison to work with the county people.”
Jessica Davis, assistant chief of the Montgomery County Fire Protection District, said she and Edwan filled out an application that included signatures from heads of each department and sent it to the BackStoppers.
“Once that was accepted, we created the by-laws from the template they sent us and submitted them for review,” said Davis, who created the Montgomery County BackStoppers logo.
Davis said after the by-laws were accepted, she and Edwan set up a meeting for anyone who was interested in joining the board of directors.
“We answered questions for the people who showed up and guided them into selecting and creating the first board,” Davis said.
The next board meeting is scheduled for April 11 at the Montgomery County Ambulance Base in New Florence.
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