Up until a few short weeks ago I thought I knew what the FOOLS were all about. An Organization that pulls together members from departments in a certain geographic area to spend time together, train hard and play equally as hard. After experiencing my first ever convention my opinion has been altered slightly.

When five of my best friends and I started the Central Mass chapter of the FOOLS we saw it as a way to spend more time together and to build our little group into something we could be proud of. We spread the word to like minded individuals from the area that we knew and told them to bring in brothers that they knew were true to the cause of the group. Amazingly five short years later we are over 50 members strong and were helping to host the Annual Convention for the entire International. When we agreed to be part of this tri-chapter coalition to host convention we knew that there would be a lot of work involved, not just physical labor but hours spent making phone calls, sending emails and driving back and forth to Maine to take care of odds and ends. I cannot speak for the rest of my chapter but I know I felt honored and a bit humbled to be working alongside the New England chapter, who has been a powerhouse in our area for hosting annual trainings and charity events for years, before we even got off the ground. I knew we had a long road ahead of us but between New England, Southern New England and our chapter we felt confident that we could give any of the previous conventions a run for their money.

As convention neared the nervousness started to set in, registrations were slow coming in, one of our training facilities got condemned and I wasn't exactly sure how many of my members were going to step up to the challenge of assisting with the day to day tasks of convention. But then it came June 24^th the big show. I was prouder then hell at the amount of chapter members who came out of the woodwork to help out. The vans all departed for the arrival destinations returning with brothers from around the country and everything came together. The first day was like your first day at summer camp, everyone that knew each other huddled in little groups in the parking lot eating their "lobstahs" while the New England guys ran around trying to find tables (it was supposed to rain I know OZ). Once the Yuengling started to flow everyone started to talk and by the end of the first night new friendships had started to form and everyone realized that we are all the same type of people just with different accents (It's a Cah not a Car). The week continued from there without a hitch, we soon realized that these brothers all understood what we were going through trying to make this convention perfect and didn't mind eating subway on an old school bus or wearing some strange multi colored gear to participate in one of the training events.

It wasn't until the end of the week when I actually had a chance to sit down and digest everything that had gone on that I realized my opinion of the organization had changed. On the van ride home from the FOOLS Grand Prix 2009 I got a text message that I had been dreading for months, it wasn't just rumor anymore or scare tactics from the city that I work in, as of July 5^th at 0800 hours I was no longer employed as a Firefighter. I had been trying to prepare myself for this possibility for weeks in advance just in case the rumors came to fruition, but the feelings of sadness and loss were more overwhelming than I could have ever imagined. I could not have even dreamed of a better group of people to have been surrounded by at this low point in my life. I have never in my ten years as a Firefighter personally experienced the level of brotherhood that I received from the members in attendance at convention and I will never ever forget it.

This is what made me analyze everything that I had witnessed at convention and I realized that I had a very vague, and in the big scheme of things, small idea of what this organization is about prior to the convention experience. I am now a firm believer that this organization attracts the top one percent of Firefighters nationwide, the cream of the crop if you will. Let me give you an example, as part of convention we built a Firefighter Down/RIT scenario that we thought was going to be pretty tough, especially for Firefighters that had never worked together before. When we unleashed the brothers on this prop it looked like four companies that had been working together for years and they got in and got the victims out in no time at all. Just watching these brothers interact with each other and to be able to foster what I hope will turn into lifelong friendships was an amazing experience. These are Jakes that don't only use the word Brotherhood when it benefits them, but men and woman who truly embody the term and live to prove it. I am forever indebted to all of you that were in attendance and taught me what the term Brotherhood is all about.

KTF – FTM – PTB – EGH – RFB – DTRT – BROTHERHOOD ABOVE ALL

FOOL Forever

Adam Bean