The inspiration for this foundation was laid many years ago in a speech given by President Theodore Roosevelt on April 23, 1910.  The speech was to become one of the most widely quoted speeches of his career.  Roosevelt's title for the speech was “Citizenship in a Republic”.

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In addition to touching on his own family history, war, human and property rights, and the responsibilities of citizenship,  Roosevelt railed against cynics who looked down at men who were trying to make the world a better place.

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“The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer,” he said. “A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticize work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities—all these are marks, not ... of superiority but of weakness.”

It was then that Roosevelt spoke the words that would resonate to this very day, perhaps especially today, in a world of responders and heroes that find themselves surrounded by skeptics and detractors.

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Here are his words:

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"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

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There could be no better mission statement or doctrine that we could publish on this site or anywhere else that shares our heart, our goals or our purpose.  We exist to support those men and women that stand in the arena, day after day, night after night only to protect our way of life, our well-being and our futures.

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For years the founders of LITA have worked side by side with these heroes as responders themselves and have witnessed the changes that have taken place in our socio-political climate; changes that have made the jobs of those in the arena difficult and at times even impossible.

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While there are many responder organizations in existence, we take great pride in our establishment of an absolute transparency system that connects our donors with the projects and programs presented by our foundation.  We are honored to know that we are trusted by those we serve and that we are governed by a board of actual responders that still find themselves standing in the arena on a regular basis.

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Our focus is on those that stand and have stood in the arena. The medics, police officers, EMT's, firefighters, linemen, researchers, nurses, doctors, deputies and agents that have always been the first line of response and defense not only on a daily basis but especially in times of great peril or disaster.

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