Andy, along with 342 FDNY brothers, was murdered on 9/11/01 at the World Trade Center by Islamo-fascists. The loss of any firefighter is always a tragedy. The loss of Andy was especially hard hitting because of the tremendous contributions he made to the fire service during his career. For those who have not heard of Andy, I encourage you to seek out his word available in Fire Engineering Videos and archives of Fire Engineering Magazine. As a good friend, Andy also provided a number of articles for my website Firenuggets.com. These articles are easily accessible to members because the SFFD has a permanent subscription to the site.

Since Andy’s loss, Firenuggets.com has sponsored an annual golf tournament to fund the creation of a life size bronze statue of Andy to be erected at the Rockland County (New York) Fire Academy where he played such an instrumental role in forming the careers of our future leaders. Firefighter Joe Cipri of the Denver Fire Department, who is also a well known sculptor, was commissioned to create the statue. I am happy to report that the statue has been completed and will be unveiled at the Rockland County Fire Academy on May 12, 2007.

Over the years, the golf tournament has been attended by a number of San Francisco firefighters and firefighters from throughout the country as well. Firefighters from New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Milwaukee, Boise, Eugene, Norwich, Austin, Sacramento, Stockton, San Jose and many other cities attend. Their contributions have been instrumental in helping us attain our goal. On a more personal level the contributions made from members of the SFFD have been especially gratifying. I am particularly grateful to the Asian Firefighters Association and Local 798 for their continued support of this worthy cause.

Now that our goal of erecting a statue in Andy’s honor has been realized, all future contributions will go to providing educational benefits and scholarships in Andy’s name.

I hope that members of the SFFD will be able to attend future golf tournaments and contribute to this great cause. The next tournament is scheduled for September 20 at Greenhorn Creek Resort in Angels Camp, California. Playing golf is not a pre-requisite. Many attendees do not play and use the time to socialize and network (oh!...and drink!).

For those of you who would like to attend the unveiling of the statue, the best place to fly to is Newark or LaGuardia. Hotel reservations can be made at the Holiday Inn Hotel and Conference Center, 3 Executive Blvd., Suffern, New York, 10901. (845) 357-4800. The rooms are under the name: Fredericks Memorial/Rockland County Fire Instructors Association. The cost is $99.00 per night.

At this point a number of questions regarding the unveiling ceremony remain unanswered and I hope to have answers to soon. Please monitor Firenuggets.com for more information or e-mail me at tedcorp@mlode.com

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