A more personal post today.
I logged in to write the July 2024 blog post and first checked the weather for the weekend. That is when I saw this article on Spectrum News 1:
The property I grew up on was secluded at the end of a dead-end street. Our driveway was not paved (crusher run) and one side the property sloped down towards a stream that runs directly to the Hudson River. That hill was tough to mow, so the grass was left higher than the flat parts of the yard. (Side note: my dad would have to counterbalance the tractor by leaning the opposite way of the slope to keep it from tipping over. When he bought a new John Deere, he had to disengage the safety switch that would turn the blades off when there was no pressure on the seat. The hilly terrain of our neighborhood also gave me plenty of summer work as a youth. I would push-mow only the hill portions of my neighbor’s yards in my baseball spikes!)
Based on this article, I grew up with the perfect conditions for fireflies on summer evenings – and boy did we have them! We had a screened-in porch that pointed towards that sloping hill. We didn’t have cable, so I would spend most evenings on the porch with AM 1540 WPTR on the radio. During the day that was country music, but at night that was the affiliate broadcasting the New York Mets games! Many July and August evenings were me, the Mets on the radio, usually my Dad, and fireflies blinking out in the field.
That imagery of home, neighborhood, and community was integral in the decision to name the company Firefly Admin Inc. At Firefly we seek to serve the men and women who are serving their local community, either as a volunteer firefighter or an employee of a local government. Both are community servants. One of the sub-headlines of the article is Small but Mighty which, we hope, neatly sums up Firefly Admin Inc. but also many of the fire departments and local governments that operate here in New York State. It is amazing how much is accomplished by the people who have to often provide services with limited and dwindling resources. The idea of a small business providing excellent (can I say mighty?) services to community-based organizations is all baked into the name Firefly Admin Inc.
On a more serious note, this article highlights the changing conditions that are threatening the survival of fireflies. Similarly, changing conditions are impacting volunteer fire departments and their viability in many communities. Most of those changing conditions are outside our scope of expertise to comment on, but we are thankful for those who are bringing awareness, advocating and working to educate lawmakers on how these changes will impact the volunteer fire service.
Back to the fun – interesting what parts of the country call these beetles fireflies vs lighting bugs. Here in New York we apparently use them interchangeably. Honestly growing up I called them lighting bugs, not fireflies. Of course now my terminology is permanently changed.
Whatever you may call them, it is my hope that you will call Firefly Admin Inc. your trusted partner as third-party administrator and actuary for LOSAP. Contact us today if you don’t!
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