Two Men Who Help Safe Call Now Save Lives...

Chris Bohnemeier & Mike Radosevich - Code 3 Spices

Our Mission: To bring the highest quality, award-winning seasonings to your home. A portion of each sale is contributed to organizations that support Police, Fire, Medical, & Military.

Chris Bohnemeier, a BBQ enthusiast and grill master, teamed up with his friend Mike Radosevich, a Police Officer of 12 plus years, joined forces to create a BBQ competition team. Located just outside of the St. Louis metropolitan area, they soon realized that their style of spices they designed and utilized were well received in the BBQ community.  The team has received multiple awards in local BBQ competitions. 

Chris and Mike developed 5 highly satisfying, award winning, professional based seasonings to make the perfect BBQ!  After teaming up with a local manufacturer to replicate their special blends, Chris and Mike are now able to introduce to you the perfect products through their Rescue Rub, 5-O Rub, Backdraft Rub, Grunt Rub and Sea Dog Rub. Not only will you love the outcome of your BBQ and various other foods, but you will find it to be an everyday staple in your spice rack.

  Chris and Mike didn't create this company solely to bring you the best blends. They also share a great passion for the men and women who serve as first responders and in military services. Chris's father served in a private sector of law enforcement and his sister currently is a law enforcement officer in the Midwest. They have seen firsthand what first responders and the military contribute to all of us and decided they needed to give back through their own passion.  

Portions of each Code 3 Spices sale will be donated to organizations that support Police, Fire, Medical and Military Personnel. 

   They invite you to join in their mission.  For every bottle purchased, $.50 of the proceeds will be donated to those qualifying programs.

Meet Safe Call Now® Board Member... Kelly Fox

Kelly Fox - A Man Who Saves Lives!!!

Experience, Dedication and Commitment… Every Day!!! 

Kelly Fox became a firefighter and member of the Olympia, WA Fire Fighter's IAFF Local 468, in 1982 at the age of 20.  Fox reverted to Lieutenant from an earned promotion to Captain to focus on union commitments and he still serves as a engine company officer today.  

Kelly Fox:

• was first elected as the President of the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters in 1996 and has been re-elected 9 times; 
• has been appointed by three different Governors to chair the Washington police and firefighter's pension board that he helped create in 2002
• serves as Vice-Chair of the Washington State Investment Board managing investments of $106 Billion for all 17 public employee retirement plans 

Fox has a proven record of results.  Whether you measure by the number of times local union leaders and elected politicians in Washington have elected or appointed him to leadership positions, by his oversight and management of the WSCFF's consistently groundbreaking progress in the legislative arena, by the WSCFF's unrivaled participation in FIREPAC Nationwide or by his independence from obligations to the IAFF establishment, Kelly Fox is the most dedicated, committed, experienced and prepared person running for the position of IAFF General Secretary-Treasurer 

“The dues paying women and men of this International union deserve a General Secretary-Treasurer who will look out for their interests, who will innovate, and who will bring an unmatched degree of preparation to work on day one.  Someone who knows what it is like to work on the front-lines because they still do and who has decades of experience at the top levels of union leadership.  I am that candidate, and I respectfully request your endorsement, your support and your vote." -- Kelly Fox

Cumulative Trauma Events & The #1stresponder

By The Station House Retreat Staff

The first responder community has made a great effort to address the effects that a critical incident can have on first responders. Critical Incident Stress teams have been set up by departments across the country and, ideally, work with first responders when they experience a traumatic event. If an officer observes a suicide or a firefighter has to respond to a deadly car wreck, their departments are going to make sure that they talk with someone, and that is appropriate. But there is another very real danger I’ll refer to as the cumulative effect.

It is not necessarily that one big disaster that is going to take you down. It may be the cumulative effect of the stuff that builds up day after day whether it is: arresting the bad guys and watching them released; having to deal with the worst in societal populations; false alarms; inadequate resources; going home knowing that no matter how good of a job you do, there will be more bad things for you to deal with tomorrow. When the cumulative effect goes unmanaged it is understandable that an individual will look to self-sooth, often with drugs and alcohol. This unhealthy form of self-soothing ads to the unmanageability of life as things begins to spin out of control.

A Firefighters Wish...

By Captain Willie Wines Jr. - Wooden Ladders & Iron Firemen

You know the old saying “sh%# in one hand, wish in the other and see which one fills up first”? Well, that’s what today’s post is about… my wishes.

I WISH…

I WISH the job cared as much about me as I do it.

I WISH I had the same passion and desire as I did in the 90’s.

I WISH I had put as much time into my family as I did the job.

I WISH I had been a better father and husband.

I WISH I had listened more to the advice I was given.

I WISH I had of went right instead of left at Hurt Park.

I WISH I could leave the job on the job.

I WISH I could sleep through the night.

What happens when it all goes wrong???

Red Folder

I was talking to our friends at Aegis Identity Group about ways to help first responders that are in crisis, perhaps in recovery and just help keep them organized in their daily lives. I remember those times and while my life was in crises so was everything around it.  My finances, my bills, passwords, you name it.  Since we run into this frequently we needed solutions!!! 

The Safe Call Now® team was discussing identity theft protection with the guys at Aegis. (I’ll discuss this in a later blog.)  I remarked that it was impossible to keep every day affairs in order while juggling the chaos in my life in times of crisis. Aegis has a solution for this, Red Folder.

The co-creator of Red Folder, Christopher Burgess –created an actual “red” folder many years ago in his years of public service. He found that almost each time he was deployed, life still continued back home. There were daily tasks that still needed to be done, yet often in times of craziness—his family found something as simple as an insurance number or a water shut-off valve was easier said than done.

#1stresponders & Medication... A Complicated Topic

By Sean Riley - President & Founder Safe Call Now®

Here’s something I see too often with #1stresponders that call the Safe Call Now® crisis line.  Officers being over prescribed medication or prescribed medication that may not be necessary for what they’re currently dealing with.  Let me give you an example; I generally see when a #1stresponder experiences a traumatic event they may afterwards feel depressed, anxious and unable to sleep.  They’re searching for answers to these problems and visit their family doctor.  Too often they report that they are prescribed anti-depressants, sleep aids and benzodiazepines (something like Xanax) to deal with these issues.  I always say when you get this combination of all three going, at some point we at Safe Call Now® will be dealing with you.

Are we medicating normal feelings to an abnormal situation?  In most cases I believe so.  What gives me the ability or expertise to qualify this statement?  Through 23 years of addiction I was often prescribed these medications and just about everything else known to mankind and experienced their side effects and became dependent on some.  What do I see as the potential problem?  The health care industry is a complicated business and as I view it driven by the almighty dollar.  When I went to the doctor it seemed that I spent less time with them as their volume of seeing patients must increase to sometimes just break even when dealing with insurance companies.  Not their fault it’s just the way the system is set up.

Emotional Self-Management Tip...

By Steve Gutzler

Emotional self-management is critical to a leader's success. This is the make or break factor. As you may have heard me say before, research shows that 83% of the time we are able to effectively manage our relationships with people and the tasks that need to get done. 

However, in those 17% moments when interactions become more challenging and our work more difficult, we find the hard truth: whether or not we are able to continue to operate at our full potential.
This is the heart of Emotional Intelligence. This is where our reputation is built. 

No one likes working with an emotional time bomb or a moody person. One of the most critical keys to success in emotional self-management is staying calm and in control. These are high-performance strategies. 
Your moods, attitudes, and emotions are contagious. They spread like a virus. Be sure people are catching the right emotional signals you put off. If you feel you are being negative or destructive, regroup, pause, breathe, and reset. 

Good leaders know when to display emotions and when to delay emotions.
Self-lead your emotions and you'll see far greater response to those you work with and you'll witness greater success with client engagement. 

Here's to becoming better leaders!