The National Volunteer Fire Council, in partnership with Anheuser-Busch, has distributed their 2025 emergency drinking water to small volunteer fire departments across the nation, and both North Judson – Wayne Township Volunteer Fire Department and Lacrosse Volunteer Fire Department are recipients this year.
This donation is part of the Emergency Drinking Water for Wildland Firefighters program, which has been in operation since 2019. The program collects canned water donated from Anheuser-Busch and distributes it to volunteer fire departments, which often face limited budgets and resources. In 2025 Anheuser-Busch donated 1.5 million cans of drinking water to be distributed to volunteer firefighters.
In order to be considered for this program, the applying fire departments must have responded to wildfires in 2024 and plans to respond to wildfires in 2025, be over 50% volunteer, and serve a population of 25,000 or less, among a few other qualifications.
Both North Judson Wayne Township Volunteer Fire Department and Lacrosse Volunteer Fire Department shared social media posts thanking Anheuser-Busch and NVFC; and Cal Brew for delivering the water.
Previous area recipients of this donation include the Kouts Fire Department in 2023 and the Keener Township Volunteer Fire Department in Demotte in 2024.
To learn more about the Emergency Drinking Water for Wildland Firefighters Program, you can visit nvfc.org and click ‘Programs’.
