What Fire & Ice Supports

Life Jacket Loaner Board Opens at Wildcat Lake!

This past fall at the Fire & Ice event the Kitsap County Medical Society raised funds to spearhead "drowning prevention" in Kitsap County. We earmarked 5K toward the construction and up-keep of life-jacket loaner boards at popular Kitsap County lakes. On April 3rd at Wildcat Lake, with the help and partnership of Parks and Recreation, Central Kitsap Fire & Rescue, The Long Lake Bass Club, Safe Kids Coalition, the family and friends of Trenten Morris and many KCMS supporters we are thrilled to report that the first life-jacket loaner board was built, unveiled and is now open to the public. We hope to build life-jacket loaner boards at Kitsap Lake, Island Lake and Long Lake in the near future!

Thank you for your support!

Kitsap County Safe Swimmers Program

We live in a county surrounded by water, and we as a community owe it to our children to make it a safer place to swim. With so much shoreline the KCMS is looking into "open water safety training" classes, emphasizing the importance of keeping our pools open for "swim lessons", building life-jacket loaner boards and also bring back life-guards to our public beaches. With your help we hope to raise funds for the construction and materials to build a life-jacket loaner board at Wildcat Lake, and if funds upport it also at Island Lake and Kitsap Lake. The Kitsap County Medical Society will then move its attention to bringing life-guards back to our area beaches. It's hard to masure the success of a life-jacket loaner board at an area lake. In our research every time we have visited Buck and Horseshoe Lake (who currently have life-jacket loaner boards in place) we always see kids in the water with the loaner vests on. Building more life-jacket loaner boards at other lakes in Kitsap County will simply provide more safety. The boards also educate/provide "safety tips." The life jacket funded by you, worn by a child on any given day of the summer, may be the child saved that day. The first life-jacket loaner board was built last winter and the grand opening was April 3rd, 2010 at Wildcat Lake when the park was opened to the public. Thank you for your help in launching this program.

WSCFF Burn Foundation

Presented by the American College of Emergency Physicians. Researchers say young children may be more susceptible to burn injuries. An estimated 300 children suffer from burn injuries every day in the United States. Two-thirds of those incidents are among kids ages six and younger. In 2006, the KCMSA began providing support to the WSCFF Burn Foundation. We purchase fire-fighter calendars for each guest that attends Fire & Ice and we also share some of the profits from Raise a Paddle the night of the event. The calendars are the main source of income for the WSCFF Burn Foundation. Calendar sales help support burn research in WA State and also send young burn victims to a special annual summer camp. The stories and struggles of these young campers tear at the hearts of Burn Foundation volunteers and everyone connected with the cause. Supporting innocent children that have fallen victim to a serious burn injury and also struggle regain their health and rebuild their lives is the work of the WSCFF Burn Foundation. The KCMS is proud that Fire & Ice is the WSCFF Burn Foundation's largest independent fundraiser in WA State!

Nursing Scholarships

The Kitsap County Medical Society recognizes the critical need for more trained nurses in the United States. Our region is not immune to these challenges. To help meet the needs of our medical community the KCMS has developed an annual program to provide Nursing Scholarships to current and aspiring nurses seeking training in the field. The scholarships ranging from $500 - $1000 have helped many nurses in the past to achieve their nursing credentials or obtain advanced nursing degrees. Their achievements directly benefit us as physicians, our patients, our Hospital and the nurses themselves.