May 2025 - Spreading Joy
We were honored to be part of the many events held on May 4th for the annual International Firefighters Day.
Executive Director George Beech gave the invocation, benediction, and said the Fallen Firefighter's Prayer. He was also part of the color guard that kicked off the day at Station 1.
Chaplain Todd Looney provided the prayer at the the Silver Lake Memorial and helped lay the flowers for the fallen Rochester Firefighters.
(Please note - this blog post was originally released as a newsletter with photos. The photos are only available in the newsletter. Subscribe on our website for monthly updates with the photos.)
You can see the news report here:
Chaplain Looney with firefighters at the memorial and laying the flowers.
Spreading the word
This past month has provided many opportunities to share the mission of Salt & Light Partners. In the last few weeks, we have presented at the 2025 Flourish Conference, the Minnesota Police Chief's Conference, River of Glory Church, the National Women in Construction SEMN Chapter Meeting, the RPD Citizens Police Academy, and at Rochester/Olmsted County peer support training.
We are grateful for the warm reception and many questions that have come from these presentations and we pray that many more doors will be opened for us to share why we are passionate about the spiritual and emotional wellness of our first responders and their families.
If you or your organization would like for someone from Salt & Light Partners to come and share what we do and why we do it - we'd love to support you. Reach out to us at info@saltandlightpartners.org.
Giving Back at ICPC Regional Training
This past month we were excited to send 9 chaplains to South Dakota for the regional training hosted by the International Conference of Police Chaplains (ICPC). Many thanks to Grace E-Free in Stewartville for graciously loaning us a van to drive to Watertown, SD.
In addition to allowing several of our newer chaplains to gain their accreditation with ICPC, Salt & Light Partners was honored to be asked to present two separate sessions on how we support our first responders. It is such a pleasure to share our lessons learned and help equip chaplains throughout the midwest region.
S&L Chaplains with ICPC Regional Director Chaplain Kevin Norton
You got this!
We are excited to be the nonprofit selected by TerraLoco for the $5 5k on June 16th. Please consider bringing the family and coming out to walk, push a stroller, or run.
There are staggered start times so the runners will have a clear track and the walkers can take their time.
We will have a fire truck for kids to climb on and RPD, RFD and OCSO will all have swag to pass out! There will also be S&L prizes for the winners.
This is a great way to come out and help us get the word out about Salt & Light Partners while having fun! No prior registration required - just show up on the 16th of June.
Spreading Joy
Our team has been hard at work passing out bags of encouragement at the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office!
Our thanks to Christ Community Church who hand wrote several hundred thank you cards of encouragement, and our Chaplains Larry Orth and Shari Cape who helped pack goodie bags.
As we send out this newsletter, we are celebrating National Police Week (11-17 May 2025). We look forward to sharing more about these celebrations in our next newsletter!
Thank you for your continued support of this ministry.
Please always reach out with any questions or requests you might have.
With gratitude,
The Salt & Light Team