by Tim Tevault
Arts & Entertainment Editor
After raising nearly $150,000 for a New York firefighters fund to benefit widows and children of the World Trade Center collapse, members of the La Verne Fire Department traveled Nov. 16-19 to Ground Zero to deliver the money.
The firefighters presented the money at Engine Eight, Ladder Two, a station in midtown Manhattan, which lost 10 of its men on Sept. 11.
“We went there to pay our respects,” Fire Captain Mike Vetti said.
Other members of the group that traveled to New York included John Mueller, firefighter/paramedic; Leonard Kilman, engineer; and Dave Benson, firefighter.
Together, the four men were amazed at the generosity of the firefighters they went to pay their respects.
“They treated us with so much hospitality,” Kilman said. “That’s what made it easy for us to open up.”
“I think the thing I found most interesting is how much we’re the same,” said Mueller. “We’re all firefighters.”
One thing that particularly touched the LVFD was how the firefighters of New York told them how much they appreciated their being there.
“It gives you a feeling of accomplishment,” said Kilman.
“(There’s been) no other time in the 12 years that I’ve been a firefighter that I’ve felt the brotherhood more alive,” said Benson of the thousands of firefighters who were also visiting Manhattan at the time. “It was incredible.”
Still, with all of the emotion, the representatives of the LVFD did not lose sight of their goal; to present the widows and children of lost firefighters with a check of $149,000.
Most of that money was raised by the firefighters donating their time to stand on various street corners throughout La Verne and collecting donations in actual firefighter boots from motorists and pedestrians.
The rest of the money was raised through donations, some of which are still trickling in.
While in New York, the firefighters visited the site of the attacks, where the wreckage is still being sifted through.
“When you go to Ground Zero, it’s reality,” Mueller said. “The human loss, it’s so devastating.”
Benson said that there’s no way TV can portray the magnitude of the situation.
Despite all of the negativity, the firefighters remained optimistic at the fact that the NYFD saved 97 percent of the people that were in the surrounding area on Sept. 11.
Also, a newfound friendship was formed between the firefighters of the LVFD and the NYFD.
“I think we struck up a good relationship with the guys from the station we visited,” Vetti said.
Overall, the men found traveling to New York to personally deliver the money was a trip they would never forget and allowed them to see first-hand the damage that was inflicted.
“It’s one of those things you can’t really put into words,” said Vetti.
