 Thank you all for coming this morning. Basically, what we want to talk about today is our Columbia Fire, Columbia Richland Fire Department, some of youth academy, the return of it. This is something that we did last year. We want to start and do it again this year. Before I move on, I do want to thank James T. McLaughorn. He is the president and the CEO of the Columbia Urban League and truly this initiative is something that we're partnering with. We're thankful for the Urban League even wanting to partner with us to do this academy. This is the second year that this academy will be going on. It was very successful last year and I think that we had some very great participations. As a matter of fact, we already had calls from people who want to come back this year because of everything that they learned. You know, we kind of give them a look into what is the life in the fire department and we're hoping that something like this will spark them to want to, you know, even join the fire department. So that's kind of what that's kind of our goal is. But also, it gives us some life experiences, not only from our firefighters, but also from just in life in general, just the stuff that we sit down and talk to them about and just try to inspire them to want to do great things, even if it's not in the fire department, we don't inspire them to do great things. So last year, we hosted about 12 kids. This year, we want to host a little more than 12. So that's kind of what we're here to talk about today. So I want to introduce also Mr. JT McLaughorn, who can kind of give us more insight on how you can sign up and just from the Urban League's perspective. So Mr. JT McLaughorn. Good morning, everyone. I want to express our profound appreciation to the Columbia Ration County Fire Department because we contacted them last year and we asked them, can we have a safe haven program, a summer program for young people? And they were able to turn around in about two weeks to put a program together. And I'm just so grateful again because normally when you ask people about doing something, they tell you, well, we don't have enough time. But time is not on our side. You know, when you think about the disruption that goes on in our society, you know, sometimes this stuff is just spontaneous. But we got to be able to respond to it. And the fire department did respond in just an outstanding way. They engaged young people. They were just really excited about it. They gave them encouragement, build self-esteem. Years ago, we had this philosophy, this slogan that said, hire a kid and stop the violence. And someone said, well, what you mean by that? That's definitely a work experience. And we live in a society today where people have gotten away from work. We have lost work ethics some kind of way. And I can tell you that work is the most significant platform for a young person to launch and be successful in life. And you're around great role models here. And they understand how to make good decisions. I can tell you, I don't think anyone made better decisions than our firemen. They deal with crisis all the time. And so it's just an honor for our kids to be part of this academy with the Columbia Richland County Fire Department. So this program, we were taking applications. Now you can go to the Irvingley website and apply. We only have a limit number of positions at the Fire Academy, but we also have summer jobs in other areas. So we're encouraging parents to get your young children involved. Let's teach them about work, enhance their interpersonal skills, learn a skill, and maybe one day they'll become a fireman. I can tell you before I started watching the fire on TV, you know, everybody got a fire program on TV now. But before that, this is a real deal now. These people just, they just actors. But our members of the Columbia Richland County Fire Department, they do this work each and every day with great integrity and great caring for our community. So again, we're just grateful to have an opportunity to partner with the Columbia Richland County Fire Department. And again, if you want to be a part of this academy, certainly get in contact with the Columbia Irvingley and they will guide you the rest of the way. We're looking to start this academy in July. We're going to run it from July the 10th through the 21st. If you run out of our headquarter station, but everything that takes place will not just happen here. I do want to take this opportunity also to just say that I really want to thank our firefighters, because certainly they step up to the plate all the time and they are very flexible and they don't mind taking on things of this nature. So I want to thank them for just their willingness to help out this program. So again, if you know anyone that wants to sign up, certainly they can get in contact with Columbia Irvingley and you know, we'll go from there. So I think it's a great program. They do some good things. And we look forward to making sure that it happens again this year. The interpersonal skills, they teach young people. You know, life is about relationships. And so so many young people have not been around role models like we see in the leadership and the members of the Columbia Riching County Fire Department. And so this is really important. It teach them interrelation skills, nonverbal communications, and then they can ask people about different issues. And that's going to result in them being able to make good decision. And so beyond the work tasks that's engaged in the fire department, they learn something that's significant, developing into a personal skill so they can be successful. What I'd like to do is get someone to come up who really kind of spearheaded this program last year. And he can kind of tell you about what happened last year. So Captain Patterson, who will be heading up this program this year as well, is going to get them coming and just talk a little bit about the program. Good morning, everybody. Last year, the program was a success. We did a lot of team building issues. We did some first responder and some fire department living. We taught more in education and adjusted everything to give them a better view of what they want to do when they grow up or what they want to endeavor into. So this year, we hope to be a little bit better and more organized and see what we can give back to the community. So again, if you want to be a part of this, contact the Climate Urban League. But also I would say, you know, every day we try to at least have some substance for them, some lunch. And so if there are any businesses out there that would like to donate lunches for this cause, we'd certainly be glad to accept that. They can call us at 803-545-3700 to make that known. But also if you want to contribute to the Columbia Urban League in this program, a sponsor child, you can certainly do so through the Columbia Urban League. We also want to thank the City of Columbia too because there's a water bill. When you receive your water bill, you can make a donation for youth leadership development. This opportunity has been available for the past 20 years. We're going to do more in promoting it because we've got to serve our children, our children in need. And we can see them there trying out to adults. I tell people quite often, we don't have a youth problem, we have an adult problem. And it's important for us to be the role models for our young children and help them to develop and help them with making good decisions.