Ground will be broken on the new Nebraska Firefighter Museum and Education Center Friday. Lindsay Schluntz is the executive coordinator of museum activities and says this is a tribute to our state’s brave firefighters.
“The Nebraska Firefighters Foundation was formed about 25-years ago and they just had a dream to create a memorial in Nebraska that would honor the courage and valor of our firefighters in our state so we started a capital campaign and we have raised $1.5-million to start constructing a museum and education center.”
Schluntz says the museum will be a one of a kind tribute to the history of Nebraska firefighters and will feature exhibits and murals to teach the history of firefighting and emergency medical services.
“We’ll have displays from all across the state from all the fire departments that we can possibly feature.”
Schuntz says every department will be given the opportunity to display equipment, trucks and artifacts and the display will rotate. There is also an interactive educational exhibit that is geared for children.
“The education center part of it will be interactive hands-on displays to teach fire prevention and fire safety so kids will be able to try on some bunker gear and climb on a truck and kind of realize the childhood dream of becoming a firefighter. We are very excited about the potential of that and that we will be able to honor the firefighters in the state.”
The museum will be located just west of the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument outside Kearney. Ground will be broken Friday morning, December 12th and 10:56. The unusual time is in reference to the 10:56 being the dispatch radio code for Nebraska?s fire departments. Construction could wrap up by June or July of 2009.