Joe Gray, the Little Rock Fire Department's chief fire marshal, believes in paying it forward.
He became a firefighter because he enjoyed helping others and credits retired Fire Capt. Floyd Burns, the city's first black firefighter, and current Fire Chief Gregory Summers as role models.
"When I was out at the fire stations, I would show up [at fire scenes] to help someone when things in their life [were] going bad or very wrong, and I would make things a little bit better for them after I left the scene," he says. "Now I try and help minorities in a different way to achieve their dreams by providing scholarships."
He does this through his volunteer work with Finding Incentives Reaching and Empowering Students Inc., or FIRES for short.