--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: 2024 Dreamer of the Year Revealed: Fearless First Responders of Disaster Recovery image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt674b2e119365588f/6a4b522e8df1a619926e156a/screenshot-2024-12-06-at-11-40-44-am.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9%2Coffset-x100.00%2Coffset-y0.00 --- # 2024 Dreamer of the Year Revealed: Fearless First Responders of Disaster Recovery  We are thrilled to recognize Portland Fire and Rescue, American Family Insurance Claims and Sales Teams, Omaha​ and Rebuilding Together, Tampa Bay, together as the 2024 Dreamer of the Year. These teams fundamentally understand that helping families and communities rebuild from climate-related crises truly takes a village. This year's group lives out that ethos every single day, restoring not just homes and infrastructure, but the dreams that dwell within. From outsized hurricanes to devastating fires and tornadoes, we're celebrating the real-life heroes among us who fearlessly face disasters. This recovery work cannot happen in a vacuum; it takes many helping hands and hearts to rebuild the homes and dreams of everyday people – especially in such dark moments. We visited this year's honorees to learn first-hand about their incredible efforts to protect and reconstruct communities in the wake of unprecedented climate disasters. These are their stories. For over two decades in Tampa Bay, Florida, Rebuilding Together has worked to prepare, relieve and recover homes impacted by catastrophic hurricanes and storms that upend lives overnight. The group preserves affordable homeownership and revitalizes neighborhoods with free home repairs for those in need. This year, the team made headlines for donating hurricane relief kits, advocating for greater hurricane awareness and preparedness and completing long-term recovery projects. After hurricanes Helene and Milton slammed into Florida this fall, Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay continues to help homeowners recover and make repairs. “Having a safe and healthy home is where everything starts. Home is the American dream," shared Executive Director José García. Rebuild Together is all about working in solidarity to provide stability for families, no matter how long that takes. Meanwhile in Omaha, the American Family Insurance claims support team isn’t simply focused on processing claims; they’re also mindful of having heart and injecting hope one person, one house and one family at a time. Guiding people through the claims process requires kindness and patience, and helping families piece together whatever is left is a delicate, empathic task. This is what makes the claims support team the backbone of American Family Insurance, providing on-the-ground, immediate support to customers and their families in their most dire moments. In Blair, Nebraska, American Family Insurance was first in and last out, responding to the destruction from April 2024's EF-4 tornado. The severe damage brought together claims professional Wendy Scheper and Joni Schultz, Sales Director for Kansas and Nebraska, to help the community in the immediate aftermath. As a local resident, Joni was home when the tornado hit and saw the damage firsthand. As soon as it was safe, she not only volunteered to direct traffic in the rain, but went house to house to offer her professional insurance perspective in the darkest of hours. It was a uniquely gratifying experience to be both a friend and a resource, all at once. Scheper, who traveled from Madison, WI to Blair in order to help on the ground, always leans into hope during these times: "\[I can be someone\] that helps bring the clarity that while this may be the worst day that you're experiencing right now, tomorrow will be better." A few months after the tornado in Blair, The Portland Fire and Rescue team in Oregon were put to the test as fire ripped through the state, destroying 1.4 million acres in its wake. As ever, Portland Fire and Rescue was there to face this head on. Fighting a multitude of fires, crews endured triple-digit temperatures and sleepless nights to protect lives, homes and businesses. Four different wildfires snowballed into a “megafire” over the summer of 2024, but that didn't stop Portland Fire and Rescue from their mission: Fight flames and fight to protect the lives and memories within the community. "As firefighters, our job every day is to protect people's dreams," says Lieutenant Damon Simmons. "That firefighter doing those bucket drops knew he was making a difference." Taken together, these are stories about the restoration of dreams. Each community, challenged by such extraordinary forces of nature, was saved by these fearless Dreamers – champions who didn't waver in the face of disaster but instead found a contagious inner resilience. They leaned into the power of teamwork to restore lives and futures, no matter how difficult. What's more, unbreakable bonds were formed through recovery efforts. Cross-state firefighters became like family. Tampa volunteers felt deeply fulfilled by helping strangers regain a sense of normalcy. Insurance teams experienced heartfelt gratitude from families in their own community. In confronting climate disaster, an enduring sense of fellowship – where care and compassion are as impactful as the recovery work itself – is the ultimate tie that binds. This year's Dreamers prove that disaster recovery isn't just about rebuilding homes. It's also about restoring hope and protecting all of our dreams.  The American Family Insurance Dreams Foundation is committed to driving lasting social change. We build transformative partnerships to close equity gaps, strengthen climate and community resilience, and fight for social justice. We are continually growing our efforts to disrupt inequitable access, resources and opportunity – inspiring and protecting our communities’, customers’ and company’s ability to dream fearlessly. [Find Out More](https://www.amfam.com/providing-support/free-to-dream) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/2024-dreamer-of-the-year-revealed-fearless-first-responders-of-disaster-recovery/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/2024-dreamer-of-the-year-revealed-fearless-first-responders-of-disaster-recovery/"},"headline":"2024 Dreamer of the Year Revealed: Fearless First Responders of Disaster Recovery","datePublished":"2026-07-20T09:47:16.397Z","dateModified":"2026-07-20T09:47:09.617Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/2024-dreamer-of-the-year-revealed-fearless-first-responders-of-disaster-recovery/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/2024-dreamer-of-the-year-revealed-fearless-first-responders-of-disaster-recovery/","name":"2024 Dreamer of the Year Revealed: Fearless First Responders of Disaster Recovery"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"AmFam Dreamer of the Year 2024 Longform","description":"AmFam Dreamer of the Year 2024 Longform","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/BLwe5Mdx/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2024-12-05T21:44:21.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/BLwe5Mdx.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/2024-dreamer-of-the-year-revealed-fearless-first-responders-of-disaster-recovery/","duration":"PT3M53S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/branded-content/american-family-insurance/2024-dreamer-of-the-year-revealed-fearless-first-responders-of-disaster-recovery/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```