In 1987 Vicki Minor contracted with the US Forest Service to provide commissary units for remote incident command posts in the forest during fire seasons. Her business and love of the firefighter community grew as she provided dry goods and what was needed, to soften their harsh environment.

While being involved with the forest fires Vicki felt the devastation not only to the land but the people who fought to protect it. As a result, Vicki founded the Wildland Firefighter Foundation in 1997 in an extra room in her home in the Foothills of Boise. After seeing the Vietnam Wall she dreamed of having a place for wildland firefighters to honor their dead and help them heal. She started the funding and spearheaded the building of the Wildland Firefighter Monument at the National Interagency Fire Center, in Boise, Idaho. Until then there was no place to recognize the efforts of all wildland firefighters. In a short time she had funded and obtained non-profit status for the Foundation, that not only serves wildland firefighters across our nation but reached its arms out internationally to help firefighters killed in wildfires in other countries.

When CNN heard of her work at various burn centers she was nominated as a CNN Hero. She has also received the “Meeting American Needs Award,” from the Chief of the US Forest Service. She has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine twice and recently received national recognition by receiving a Mother Teresa Caring award given each year by the Caring Institute in Washington, D.C.