Safety
Deep in the woods of Person County in north-central North Carolina, a hunter stood in a tree stand, waiting for deer to make their appearance.
Before the white-tailed ungulates could arrive, the hunter lost his balance and fell from the raised platform, injuring his lower body.
Timberlake Fire and Rescue, the region’s volunteer force, responded to the call, sending a team to hike through the woods to reach the wounded hunter. Without back-country wheels like a Utility Terrain Vehicle (UTV), the rescue crew not only had to hike to the patient—rescuers had to physically carry him out of the woods on a backboard.
Utah Food Bank, a Feeding America member, serves all 29 counties in Utah, distributing more than 65 million pounds of food, household and hygiene supplies, and diapers each year through over 300 partner agencies and food pantries.
Since 2011, organizations, foundations and companies have joined forces to sponsor the mobile pantry program in schools. The sponsors provide volunteers to distribute the food, and the food bank lends the truck and driver and a school coordinator.
All children at the participating schools are invited to accept food, so there is no stigma, Bott says. In Utah, one in five children are at risk of missing a meal today.
“We make it equitable and comfortable and with an element of dignity for the kids,” she adds.
Enbridge Gas Utah is a proud sponsor of the Utah Food Bank’s mobile school pantry program. While we currently provide an annual $7,500 grant, we also empower our staff to volunteer to distribute the food to the students at our sponsor school, which is near our operations in the West Valley area of Salt Lake City. In 2025, our staff distributed more than 1,400 pounds of food to 2,500 kids.
Our support for the Utah Food Bank also includes contributions to its Kids Café Thanksgiving event, which provides a Thanksgiving meal for approximately 250 children, and has over the past 15 years. In 2025, we provided $7,500 to the cause as well as volunteers for the day—as well as another $7,500 grant for its new diaper bank.
The ATV “will give us better access to areas we can't get a regular fire truck or even a smaller brush truck to,” explains Capt. Fletcher, noting their rural service area includes a 282-acre park and wooded areas that are popular for outdoor recreation. “It'll allow us to get to patients or a fire quicker.”
Nearby, Moriah Volunteer Fire Rescue—which operates in southeastern Person County and northeastern Durham County—received a Safe Community First Responder grant of $10,000 in 2025 to purchase equipment for its new fire engine.
“We received a decommissioned truck from the City of Mebane after they purchased a new engine. To bring it into compliance with North Carolina requirements, we had to outfit it with specific equipment,” explains Chief Roger Whitt.
Thanks to grants and fundraising in the community, the engine is now outfitted with firehose, nozzles of various sizes, ladders, axes and thermal imagining equipment to assist in medical and rescue efforts. Without the equipment, the truck is an empty shell.
“We respond to calls from fire alarms to grass fires to full-blown structure fires and motor vehicle crashes,” Chief Whitt continues, noting the equipment is vital to providing aid to the community.
In 2026, the Moriah volunteer force received a second $10,000 Safe Community grant, this time for battery-powered “jaws-of-life” hydraulic extrication tools.
“The battery-operated ones are so versatile; I can take them anywhere,” he adds.
Both Chief Whitt and Captain Fletcher acknowledge how fulfilling it is to be part of a volunteer force and helping fellow community members in need.
“It makes you feel good when you administer aid to someone,” Chief Whitt continues. “It’s why we do this, to keep the community safe.”
