Representatives from Hinton, Remsen, Oyens, Kingsley, Le Mars and Merrill fire departments stand with Le Mars 7th grade student, Brooklyn Bockelmann holding their new pet oxygen mask kits. Bockelman raised money to provide each fire department within the county with the kit.
(Le Mars) — Each of the community fire departments within Plymouth County are now equipped with a pet oxygen masks kit, thanks to the efforts of a Le Mars Community Middle School 7th grader. Last evening, Brooklyn Bockelmann distributed a pet oxygen masks kit to the Oyens, Hinton, Kingsley, Merrill,
Remsen, and Le Mars fire departments. Representatives of the Akron Fire Department were not able to attend the program. Bockelmann says she loves animals, and got the idea after reading a news article from California.
Bockelmann raised nearly one thousand dollars within a month to help finance the pet oxygen kits. Most of that money was raised during a Middle School dance.
Bockelman says before starting her fund raising campaign, she checked with Le Mars Assistant Fire Chief Mike Wise to inquire if the local fire departments had such equipment. She soon learned that although it was on their list of items to acquire, none of the county fire departments had a pet oxygen masks.
Bockelmann says each kit has three different masks.
Bockelmann set up a Go-fund-me account online, as well as a local bank account to accept donations. She will be attending the upcoming Woofstock program on Saturday at the Plymouth County Historical Museum selling small paw print
chocolates and paw-printed wrists bands. Her next goal is to raise enough money so every fire department in Iowa can be equipped with a pet oxygen masks kit.
