This past week, volunteers from the Foundation were at EduCODE in Las Vegas to share Officer Safety resources.
[L-R Matthew Meanea (Reg 1 Rep), Justin Edson (President), Jodi Welch (Reg 5 Rep), & Jeanette Loven (Reg 11 Rep)]
Las Vegas, Nevada - This years EduCODE took place from February 27th through March 3rd at The Orleans Hotel & Casino. This is one of the largest building/code conferences in the country. They hosted over 100 classes all week for the attendees to receive ICC CEU's. To learn more about EduCode visit their website at https://educode.us/
The Foundation is grateful for the support of ICC and AACE! Our invitation to have a booth and teach a class on officer safety is another example of our amazing relationship with ICC and AACE. Regional Representatives Jodi Welch and Jeanette Loven managed the booth all week where they handed out information and spoke to many Code Professionals from across the country. President Justin Edson, Vice President Tim Sun, and Regional Representative Matthew Meanea were also in attendance for several days during the week.
Vice President Tim Sun taught a 4-hour class on Officer Safety & De-escalation to a packed room. We are grateful for AACE inviting us and for the amazing support of Tana Bryant. During this class students had interactive group activities, learned about some risks in the job, and demonstrated basic self-defense commands and stances.
During the class, Tim had students right down a story about officer safety incidents that they were victim of. Then the class chose the person most deserving of a new body armor vest. Tim donates 100% of his instructor fees towards donating a vest. A female Code Enforcement Officer in northern Washington received the vest.
Her story:
"I am from a very remote county of 80k population and I am the only full-time Code Enforcement Officer. I was attacked in the grocery store before being hired, but now have to deal with the same man in my role. I have had guns pulled on me often and now I use words only to calm people down per my County. Two weeks before this class, I had a man attack me at his home as I was posting a red tag. I was able to get back to my vehicle with only a couple bruises, but I will only go back with a deputy at this point because I am not allowed to have a taser or pepper spray since I am 'not a Police Officer.'"
The Foundation was honored to be listed as a sponsor of this years EduCODE and we are thankful of Alan Ellis. Al runs a very smooth conference and such a nice person. He was able to support the Foundation with a free booth in the main hallway and took good care of our team. It was a wonderful experience to meet so many people in person and hear their stories! Our team was also able to meet James Straws, President of the Indiana Association of Building Officials (IABO). He was recently on our Lifeline Podcast, graduate of the COSS training, and attended our EduCODE class.
[James Straws - 3rd from left]