Provide fast funding to organizations facing one-time immediate needs or timely opportunities – particularly to smaller, often-overlooked organizations and those addressing and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion.

At 1:30 am on Saturday, July 11th, Shooting Creek Volunteer Fire and Rescue in Clay County received a call to assist the local police in a search for a juvenile with possible injuries. The search area was in deep woods and more than 100 acres. Using equipment purchased with an ION Grant, the Shooting Creek team was able to deploy and arrive on site in less than 30 minutes.

The new search and rescue equipment has already been used on several other searches in the area and is now recognized by other public safety organizations as a valuable part of emergency response.

“In the past, even during daytime hours, it took over two hours to set up a four wheel-team. The equipment we deployed was able to cover a vast amount of territory in a short time frame. The juvenile was located within two hours and medivaced out.”