For 33 years, Quebec has provided our county with these aircraft along with the skilled pilots and mechanics who operate and maintain them during peak fire season here in Los Angeles County.

These aircraft give our firefighters a powerful tool, but equipment alone cannot keep our community safe.

Wildfire safety requires all of us to do our part.

So we're we're happy to be here every year.

And also for our Quebec pilots.

It's a way to gain specialized expertise and training in a terrain that's uh that's certainly very different from Quebec.

So every year uh the aircraft and the crews come to support Los Angeles County Fire Department in their firefighting efforts during the busiest firefighting season in the year.

These are really model examples of our governments that are working together to protect our communities.

25 years ago today, I was uh part of a uh Los Angeles uh fire department urban search and rescue team that was deployed to ground zero right after the 9-11 attacks.

We're here to uh remember the incidents of 9-11, the lives that were lost, the people that were lost, but to also remember how we came together as a country.

They were our neighbors at that moment, and we helped them.

They went because people were trapped.

They went because they recognized that people needed

help.

And they went because they were

firefighters.

There was a terrible sense of helplessness watching what was happening 3,000 miles away, wondering about people you cared about, well knowing that police officers, firefighters, paramedics, and so many others were running directly toward something the rest of the world was watching in horror.

Today we're here at the Frank Hotkins Training Center commemorating the 25th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks on the Twin Towers.

Uh, we're uplifting and remembering all of the first responders, all of the people who stepped up to be brave to save people's lives, and to remind the generations that have come after the attack of what occurred so that we never ever forget what bravery looks like in this country and what it looks like for people to step up to save people.

9-11, 2001 was a very sad day.

Uh it was a terrible day in the history of our country and the history of the world.

So we're here to thank everyone.

We're here to honor everyone, and we're here to say we don't want this to happen again.

We can't let

this happen again.

In the city now, we go on thousands of calls every day.

We know that we're doing this to provide a service for that for our

community.

So as we're experiencing crises, as we're experiencing different horrors that intend to divide us, we must follow the steps of people from 9-11 and what they did and stick together and protect our communities.

Oh can you see by the Donserite.

What's so proudly we hailed at the Twilight's Let us leave

me.

We

are the City of Los Angeles with the mayor's Office of Economic Opportunity, and we are here today to celebrate the kickoff of the Angelina Corps program for the 2026-2027 year.

The Angelino Course program is a 10-month internship program.

All 300 Angelinos who are here today are ages 18 to 30 who receive work experience for 10 months in one of the six sectors that we offer.

A majority of the Angelinos that are enrolled into our program

are in school.

So it's hard, you know.

Sometimes a lot of workplaces ask you to have two, three years' worth of experience.

So the Angelino Corps members program is awesome.

They're learning hands-on right there and then.

We are able to balance those working hours for them to still get work experience and being able to develop skills and add it to their resume.

I'm one of the successful stories.

Myself, I was a Bohigh Technology User Sentinel participant.

During my early years, it was difficult to get that work experience while being in school.

But now for the last three years, I've been a full-time case manager under the Angelino Course program.

Our hope is that by students participating in the Angelina Core program, that they're going to be able to set themselves up for the future.

It's going to be important that you just come willing to learn.

Maybe you think you don't have a skill or an expertise yet, but once you're there, you actually learn that you do have some expertise.

We're here to really help you grow those skills and just be able to be whatever it is you want to be.

And wherever your goals take you, we're really there to support you.

On

the 26th floor is the Hall of Mayors featuring portraits of former Los Angeles mayors, including Tom Bradley, who is the city's first black mayor and its longest serving, holding office from 1973 to 1993.

Now this hall is just one of the many places in LA that honors people.

From the monuments in MacArthur Park and the memorials in Grand Park to the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the Grammy Museum.

Recently, the iconic Mexican group, Los Angeles Azules, were honored for their decades of telling their stories through the music of Cumbia.

And Councilmember Imelda Padilla and others celebrated the group and their rich connection to the San Fernando Valley community.

Today in the community of Panorama City, we welcomed one of the most globally recognized cumbia groups from Mexico, Los Angeles Azules, to name Van Ayes Boulevard and Chase Street after them.

There is no group as big as Grand with beautiful songs and lyrics like Los Angeles Azules, and here we are