Edna Owen says she just wanted to meet the people she talks to everyday.

Friday, October 29, 1999

Edna Owen says she just wanted to meet the people she talks to everyday.

Owen calls the Albert Lea Fire Department every day to let the department know that she is OK. With her husband currently living in an assisted-care facility, if she didn’t make that call, department staff would come calling her.

That’s reassuring, said Owen, who suffered a stroke last year and has recently returned to her home.

&uot;I’ve been calling them for quite awhile and now I can finally meet them,&uot; she said.

Owen is one of 34 people who participate in the department’s Reassurance Call-in Program. While the program is a long-time Albert Lea tradition, participants have never met those they call in nonemergencies until Thursday.

&uot;We have never been able to meet them, so we decided to have coffee and cake to see who we have been talking to,&uot; Albert Lea Fire Chief Rich Sydnes said at the get-together at City Hall.

&uot;Some of them we have never seen and we have been talking to them for 15 years,&uot; he said. &uot;So we decided to have a party.&uot;

Sydnes doesn’t know how long the program has existed in Albert Lea; it’s been here since Sydnes joined the fire department 26 years ago.

All that’s required to join the Reassurance Call-in Program is to fill out a card at the fire department with the necessary medical information and emergency contacts. The department also asks for a house key.

&uot;They’re (mostly) elderly people who have nobody to call on them,&uot; he said. &uot;So they call us. If they don’t call, we check on them.&uot;