The Norman Fire Department received a $10,000+ grant from the Dickey Foundation to provide additional equipment for the department. The funds are being used to purchase helmets for first responders to use in emergency or active threat situations.
Laura Rea Dickey, CEO of Dickey’s Barbecue Restaurants; Betsy Orton, executive director of the Dickey’s Foundation; and Gary Snider, owner of the Norman Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, were on hand to celebrate the award with representatives of Norman Fire Department and the City of Norman on November 18, 2024 at Station 7.
“When I called Gary Snider, the local Norman owner here of Dickie’s and I said, ‘who do you want to support,’ he didn’t hesitate,” said Betsy Orton, “He said the Norman Fire Department.”
Orton said The Dickey Foundation was originally created in 2016, when Maureen Dickey was a Dallas County Commissioner. On July 7 of that year a gunman ambushed Dallas Police and Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) officers, killing five, wounding nine more, and injuring two civilians.
“At that point,” Orton said, “Mrs. Dickey said, ‘Not again on my watch.’”
Chief Executive Officer Laura Rea Dickey said presenting the awards to first responders is one of her favorite parts of the job.
“You’re first in the front lines,” she said. “You take care of us, so, in a very small way, this is our thank you to you.”
Assistant Chief Chad Roney said the grant would be used to provide Safariland Tactical Helmets to first responders who respond to emergencies like active shooter events.
“We are very grateful to the Foundation. This is equipment we have needed for quite some time and it was very important that we get this,” he said. “This gives us another level of protection for those active threat events.”
Roney said the equipment Norman Fire Department has added will allow police, firefighters and emergency medical services (EMS) personnel to enter a building as a team and provide medical help more quickly.
“We go in as a team once the threat is mitigated and do combat wound care. We apply tourniquets and emergency bandages to stop hemorrhaging,” he said, “We stabilize them and bring them out and get them to a collection point where the severity of injuries can be assessed through the triage process.”
“This gear allows us to go safely into these ‘warm’ zones and get those victims out as fast as possible.”
Norman City Manager Darrel Pyle echoed Roney’s sentiments.
“I appreciate the Dickey’s Foundation coming to help out here.”
He said that the grant benefitted not only the Norman Fire Department, but all of Norman’s residents and the other agencies.
In a time of finite budgets, Pyle said, grants like the one provided by The Dickey Foundation allow the Fire Department to make the purchases that might otherwise be impossible to make.
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