KENT–The Kent Volunteer Fire Department is one of 18 recipients this year of the FirstLight Sustains grant program, receiving funds to help purchase communication radios to support their rescue operations.
KVFD received one of the inaugural FirstLight Sustains grants last year, using the funds to recruit and train new volunteers through a community-wide social media campaign.
FirstLight, a clean power producer, developer, and energy storage company, is distributing more than $82,000 in the second year of the grant program, increasing the number of recipients from 13 to 18 and the amount of funding by $30,000.
The grantees will implement activities and projects that meet the program’s goals for community building and/or climate action and education. This year’s projects address food insecurity and waste, social support services, accessibility, education, public safety, and more.
Other regional groups receiving grants in 2024 are the Candlewood Lake Association, which will use its grant for the purchase of handheld communications radios for their Marine Patrol boats; Harrybrooke Park in New Milford, where the grant will help eliminate invasive species and repair streambanks after last year’s flooding in the Still River; the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) to fund its Still River Watershed Connections program in Connecticut, and the New Milford Community Ambulance to help purchase a new stair chair for the safe evacuation of patients through stairways when elevators and lifts are not a safe method of transport.
Based in Burlington, Mass., with operating offices in Northfield, Mass., New Milford, Oshawa, Ont., and Montréal, Quebec, FirstLight is a steward of more than 14,000 acres and hundreds of miles of shoreline.
