June 6, 2017
MYRTLE BEACH – June 5, 2017 – The South Carolina Firefighters’ Association Fire-Rescue Conference will be held in the Myrtle Beach Convention Center the week of June 12-17, 2017.
After the Business Meeting on Thursday June 15 of the Conference, a presentation of the Pet Oxygen Kit Project will be featured. Phil Leventis, (Brigadier General (R) USAF, South Carolina State Senator (Retired) and current Director of Development for the South Carolina Firefighter’s Foundation, will provide opening comments, introductions, and his personal story of a fire of his own home and the value of his beloved family pets. Mary Ellen Tobias and Nena Sinclair, the Pet Oxygen Kit Project, Inc., will discuss their organization's educational and public safety effort to provide pet oxygen kits to equip every fire department in South Carolina.
The oxygen masks provided by the Pet Oxygen Kit Project that firefighters carry on their trucks help in their effort to revive pets. These specially designed animal masks can be used both on conscious pets that have suffered from smoke inhalation and pets that need to be resuscitated after losing consciousness from exposure to the dangerous toxic fumes. The kits can be used on dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds and other pets.
Following the comments, Tobias and Sinclair will present 43 kits to Chief Shawn Johnson of Aiken County, 9 kits to Chief Edwin Riley of Saluda County, 10 kits to Chief Brad Barbee of McCormick County, and 14 kits to Chief Joey Smith of Edgefield County. On behalf of each county, the chiefs will also receive a framed Certificate of Donation by the Pet Oxygen Kit Project. Including these four counties, the organization has now outfitted 395 trucks and completed 12 counties.
Leventis said, “This organization is the passion of two people. Mary Ellen Tobias and Nena Sinclair are the entire organization. They run the entire program and take no compensation or reimbursement for expenses. Every penny they raise goes to buying pet oxygen kits which are given to fire departments here in South Carolina.” He added, “I have contributed to [the project] and I can, without reservation and based on personal knowledge of the great things it does, ask others to contribute.”
The Pet Oxygen Kit Project, Inc. is registered with the South Carolina Department of Revenue and Secretary of State as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit charity. All donations are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law.
For more information about the South Carolina Association of Firefighters and the Fire-Rescue Conference in Myrtle Beach, visit scfirefighters.org. To donate to the Pet Oxygen Kit Project, visit www.petoxygenkit.com.
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