ABOUT US-HEAT

Larry Jantzen, President of the US HEAT Scholarship Foundation Inc. Board explains the history behind how US HEAT came to be.

The US HEAT Scholarship Foundation’s roots go back as far as 2015, when 5 HazMat Techs from Central Texas had a vision.  Myself and 4 other HazMat Techs (Theron Proctor, Marty Herrin, Harry Evans and Craig Walker), and our organizations, had benefitted so immensely from us and fellow HazMat Techs in our departments attending the IAFC Hazardous Materials Response Teams (HMRT) conference in Baltimore that we felt we should do something to help other HazMat Techs in Texas be able to afford to attend it as well.  Starting a scholarship fund sounded like the best way to do this.  We figured a $2500 scholarship would be enough to allow two Techs from a Texas department to attend if they shared a room, which many of us did over the years in order to minimize the cost to our departments.  We didn’t have any idea how to start a scholarship so I asked Chris Hawley, the “Ramrod” of the IAFC HMRT conference, if he knew who we might get some help from on this.  He recommended we talk to Mike Hildebrand and Greg Noll, who had been providing some scholarships through the Yvorra Leadership Development Foundation (YLD) for many years.  So, Craig and I sat down with them in the lobby of the conference hotel and asked them what they thought.  They were more than happy to help us get started, and without them, Mike’s wife JoAnne and YLD I’m not sure we could have.

In 2017 the Texas HazMat Education And Training (TX HEAT) Scholarship Fund was formally hosted by YLD and officially started with $3060.00 in our account.  $2500 of this came directly from $500 donations from each of us “founding five” members.  The other $560 was acquired through a little “arm twisting” of several of our friends.  TX HEAT awarded its first $2500 scholarship to two HazMat Techs from the Harlingen Fire Department in 2018.  Lieutenants Andres Galvan and Samuel Albritton thanked us numerous times and said there was no way they could have ever attended this particular conference without a TX HEAT scholarship.  Up until receiving its first corporate donations in 2024 TX HEAT had funded its scholarships solely with donations from individuals, mostly from emergency response personnel.

In 2023 TX HEAT started a second annual scholarship, the Travis L. Maher “HazMat is FUN!” Memorial Scholarship.  Travis passed away on December 28, 2022, from exposure to toxic materials while responding to Ground Zero with Texas Task Force 1 after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Travis was a good friend and co-worker and was always doing his best to learn and pass on what he had learned to younger responders.  We felt creating a memorial scholarship in his name was good a way to keep his memory and legacy of helping others alive.  As of June 2026, TX HEAT has sent 24 HazMat Techs from Texas to the conference. 

After the first couple of successful years, we had the vision that every state that wanted one could also create a HEAT Scholarship Fund; and even hoped to one day offer HEAT scholarships at the national level.  After preaching about this for several more years, and with the help of some really awesome additional folks, this new expanded group of people were not only able to create the US HEAT Scholarship Foundation, but Maryland has also created the MD HEAT Scholarship Fund. US HEAT is now its own 501(c)(3) charitable organization and is the host organization for the TX HEAT, MD HEAT, and possibly soon additional HEAT Funds for other states.  Moving out from under YLD and forming our own 501(c)(3) was bittersweet, as YLD helped us get this whole thing started and supported TX HEAT for almost 10 years.  But it was what needed to happen to allow both foundations to continue moving in the directions they are heading and keep their funding manageable.  YLD is expanding and the HEAT scholarships are growing and spreading rapidly.  I want to make sure no one thinks there was or is any friction or bad blood between YLD and the  US HEAT Foundation, because there isn’t.  It was just the mutually agreed time for US HEAT to form its own 501(c)(3).  US HEAT and YLD will continue to promote and support each other.

I’m so proud of what the TX HEAT Scholarship Fund started and has helped create – other state HEAT Scholarship Funds and the US HEAT Scholarship Foundation.  In fact, two previous TX HEAT Scholarship recipients (Preston Doege and Louis Lopez) serve in positions on the US HEAT Foundation Board.  It’s truly amazing what 5 dedicated Firefighters with a vision, that “know some guys”, can do.