2025 SESSION

ENROLLED

HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 526

Commending the Rescue College of the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads, Inc.

Agreed to by the House of Delegates, January 27, 2025

Agreed to by the Senate, January 30, 2025

WHEREAS, the 50th annual Rescue College of the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads, Inc., a comprehensive event dedicated to providing participants with first responder education, hands-on experience, and overall preparedness training, will be held from June 6–15, 2025; and

WHEREAS, the first Rescue College was held on the campus of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg in 1975 and has continued to be held annually in the same location where the program began for the past 50 years; and

WHEREAS, the Rescue College provides a wide array of specialized educational opportunities to improve the knowledge and skills of first responders in the Commonwealth; and

WHEREAS, the training received by the dedicated emergency medical services providers at the Rescue College goes back to their home agencies, enabling them to better serve their communities; and

WHEREAS, many of the instructors and cadre at the Rescue College are graduates of previous sessions and continue to return annually; at the 50th anniversary session, both old and new faces will be gaining new information and techniques; and

WHEREAS, many of the Rescue College's graduates go on to serve as officers, life members, or members of the Rescue Hall of Fame and as dedicated members of the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads, Inc., providing course instruction to both local and state agencies; and

WHEREAS, Rescue College chairs, when their tenure is complete, remain active within the program, mentoring incoming chairs, making the college better than it was before, and advancing and advocating for new and more modern courses; and

WHEREAS, the continued success of this one-of-a-kind program would not be possible without the hard work and dedication of the Rescue College's partners and volunteers, who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to preserve and promote the history and heritage of the Commonwealth; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly hereby commend the Rescue College of the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads, Inc., on the occasion of the program's 50th anniversary; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates prepare a copy of this resolution for presentation to representatives of the Rescue College program and partners of the Virginia Association of Volunteer Rescue Squads, Inc., as an expression of the General Assembly's admiration for their efforts to raise awareness of their work, to educate the public and the numerous first responder agencies in the Commonwealth, and to establish the best in training standards through 50 years of exceptional training opportunities.