Proclamation 5226

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Throughout our history, the American spirit has been distinguished by the ready willingness of neighbors to join together and help one another. The tradition of voluntary community service is as important today as it was in the founding years of our country.

Our Nation's volunteer firefighters carry on this truly American tradition of citizen response for the common good. Like the Minutemen of our early years, these volunteers are ready to respond on short notice to help fellow citizens in need. Volunteer firefighters protect our lives, our families, and the economic life of our communities from the threat of destructive fire, often at great personal sacrifice. But these volunteers are more than firefighters. In many communities, they respond to a wide range of natural and technological emergencies.

These trained and organized volunteers, our neighbors, are a valuable national resource. It is fitting and proper that a grateful Nation should recognize the vital contributions of the one million men and women who serve in our Nation's volunteer fire and rescue companies and departments.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 136, has designated August 18, 1984, as "National Volunteer Firefighters Recognition Day" and has authorized and requested the President to issue an appropriate proclamation.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Saturday, August 18, 1984, as National Volunteer Firefighters Recognition Day, and I call upon all Americans to join in appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities to recognize the valuable contributions of these public-spirited volunteers.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and ninth.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:45 a.m., July 27, 1984]