BRIEF HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE
The National S.A.F.E. Home Foundation, Inc.
In 1987 our founder, Robert Johnson, a retired railroad supervisor, began his crusade to reduce the number of preventable deaths and injuries due to the tragedy of residential fires. At the time he was suffering from heart and Lyme disease and helping his wife battle cancer.
He gathered information regarding fire prevention from local and national firematic organizations. He spoke to elementary school children, church organizations, and senior centers—basically anyone who would listen—about the importance of early warning devices and fire prevention practices. The name “S.A.F.E. (Smoke Alarms for Every) Home” was born.
Three years later in February 1990, he established the first S.A.F.E. Home Newborn Program at Clearfield Hospital in Clearfield, PA. At a firematic trade show he discovered Safety Sake children designed smoke alarms.He realized these highly visible smoke alarms would be perfect for the nursery and grab attention to the importance of installing and maintaining smoke alarms in our homes. Mr. Johnson then purchased the first 4 dozen Dalmatian smoke alarms out of his own pocket to kick-off the program.
Mr. Johnson’s efforts paid off. From 1990 through 1992 there were no fire deaths in Clearfield County. In a letter dated June of 1994, Brian B. Witherow, Director of the Department of Emergency Services, state: “I feel strongly that the level of fire safety awareness strengthened by the S.A.F.E. Home Program was largely responsible for three straight years with no fire deaths. Especially when one considers that there were fire deaths for every year for as long as records are available.”
As of May 1990, Michelle Destino-Moran, employed by Funtech Home Safety, continued the crusade of establishing smoke alarm giveaway programs and S.A.F.E. Home community-based partnerships through fire departments, hospitals, Red Cross chapters, SAFE KIDS coalitions, civic groups, health departments, schools, corporation and other injury prevention outreach services.
Funtech Home Safety, the supplier of the specially designed smoke alarms for children’s rooms, fully paid for the establishment and administration of all programs until receiving the 501(C)(3) charity status in July of 1993. Michelle Destino-Moran was then elected President of the National S.A.F.E. Home Foundation and other officers and small Board of Directors was established. The current Board of Directors totals six professionals in the marketing, fire service, financial and community service fields.
Numerous articles have been published in major magazines, such as Parents, Good Housekeeping, Child, American Baby, Baby Talk and other publications. These provided a significant contribution to public education about child fire deaths and injuries. They also became a vehicle to assist organizations in implementing these potentially life-saving programs to their communities.
The Foundation operated out of shared office space in a residence until June of 1997. Through the support of PM Associates, low-rent office space has been provided at 1333 Strad Avenue in North Tonawanda, New York. Currently the Foundation consists of a staff of one full-time and three part-time employees. Volunteers and student interns from local high schools and colleges have also assisted in our endeavor to save lives.
Community-based S.A.F.E. Home Partnerships have been establish in over 300 communities in 43 states consisting of over 1,000 Associate Members. These programs target the newborns, preschool and grade school children, senior citizens, the disabled, the needy, and corporate employees.
The Foundation has no major sponsor and does not receive any State or Federal Funding. A small amount of revenue is received on the sale of discounted smoke alarms for the programs to help with administrative expense. Other revenue is received through fund-raising, grants and donations. (Audited financial statements can be obtained through Non-profit EIN 16-1421480 NYS Reg. #016970.)
Currently smoke alarms are purchased from a number of manufacturers such as Invensys Climate Controls (formerly Maple Chase, Jameson and Coleman), Funtech Home Safety, LS&S Group, Harris Communications and Kidde Safety Products. Constant research is conducted to find low-cost, high quality smoke alarms for distribution through the programs.
The S.A.F.E. Home Foundation is a member of the Fire and Life Safety Coalition, National SAFE KIDS Coalition, NYS Fire Chiefs Association, Kiwanis International, IAFF’s (International Association of Fire Fighters) Operation Life Safety and the Chamber of Commerce.
To date, we are proud of the fact that 21 lives have been saved directly through our smoke alarm giveaway programs. It is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of any injury prevention program. How many more recipients of the over 139,000 smoke alarms provided free through S.A.F.E. Home Programs since 1990 have provided the early warning of a fire that stopped a tragedy from occurring????
We truly thank all of our supporters and Mr. Johnson’s tireless effort in beginning his crusade to save lives.
For more information contact the National S.A.F.E. Home Foundation at.
Phone: 1-800-877-1250 or 716-692-8744
Fax: 716-692-8755
E-mail: michelle@safehome.org
Address: 1333 Strad Ave. Suite118 North Tonawanda, New York 14120-3061