Bereavement Uniform Program
Bereavement Uniform Program collects, offers free dress uniforms for deceased firefighters.
The Lighthouse Uniform Company, long known for its Fallen Firefighter Dress Uniform Program, recently started a new program called the Bereavement Uniform Program. It’s an active response to families finding themselves in need of “end game” help.
Many times over the course of administering the Fallen Firefighter Dress Uniform Program, we’ve had difficult conversations about qualifying line of duty death. We’ve discovered there is a whole generation of firefighters, mostly retired now, who dedicated their lives to the fire service, never owned a dress uniform and are beginning to pass away. Their families want to give them a fireman’s funeral but they don’t qualify for the fallen firefighter dress uniform.
It doesn’t mean they don’t deserve one. It means there needs to be a different program and that’s what gave rise to the Lighthouse Bereavement Uniform Program.
Unfortunately, Lighthouse can’t afford to provide free dress uniforms to every firefighter who passes away. We did what we could with the Bereavement Program. You can get an overview at http://blog.lighthouseuniform.com/?p=1885.
As it turns out, the solution and success of the Bereavement Uniform Program actually hangs in the closets of many fire departments around the country. To that end we are reaching out and asking departments to send us their surplus and no longer used dress uniforms, which we will clean, refurbish, re-rank as necessary and make available to those families wanting/needing a bereavement uniform, at no cost.
We will acknowledge and honor those departments who so generously and graciously give to make this program work on our website’s Wall of Fame.
This is an opportunity to do something meaningful and important. It’s an opportunity to take care of those who took care of us, and with your help it’s doable. To learn more, e-mail steve@lighthouseuniform.com or call 800/426-5225.
