Local firefighters share some of their favorite recipes to benefit a great cause.

Watch the video on San Diego’s NBC website.

According to the FDNNTV website:

Always seeking creative means of raising awareness for the fire service charity, Jim Beam and the California Chapter of the Terry Farrell Fund partnered to develop “The Terry Farrell Firefighters Fund California Firehouse Cookbook and What Inspires Our Local Heroes”.  Slated for a September 2009 release, the special cookbook contains fifty recipes submitted by firehouses across the state of California, and will be sold to raise funds for and awareness about the charity.

Sheri Haupt of Beam Global Spirits and Wine explains her company’s involvement in this project saying, “We are trying to come up with creative ways to help our local heroes, to help these firefighters raise money and we thought this was a great opportunity, again getting their other skills out there other than just firefighting, and getting the communities involved, and having some fun with it.”

Demonstrating the preparation of “Pollo Asado Taco Salad”, one of the recipes that will appear in the cookbook, Mike O’Connor of the Escondido Fire Department explains that cooking is an important part of firehouse life in California and across the United States.  In his fire department he says, “The crew gets going.  We assign someone to cook or they volunteer.  Usually the youngest guy volunteers or the older guy will volunteer with him and teach him some of the recipes that have been long in the firehouse.”

To read this entire article and find out how you can submit to or support this effort, click here.

We had a great night of fundraising at O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub in San Deigo.  The Terry Farrell Firefighters Fund has found their west coast home!  Thanks goes to Jim Beam for supporting our mission.  What a night – to see the San Diego County Firefighters & FDNY Bag Pipers & Drums.  Firefighters froma cross San Diego County and from across the America FDNY, along with the FDNY retirees. We rocked the night away and raised $2,000.00 for the fund!  A special thanks to those who hosted the FDNY brothers, John Williamson and his crew. The FDNY Pipes & Drums rocked and we would love to have them back for a another visit. San Diego Fools rocked also! To all the North County Firefighters, we say Thank You!  Also thanks to Monica for the great gift baskets. Also to Mike Mellon, Jon Schmiser, Torrey Dawn: thanks for all did to help boost sale.

We look forward to a vibrant and robust California chapter!

The Terry Farrell Firefighters Fund is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing firefighters and their families with financial assistance for their educational, medical and equipment needs. This charity was formed in honor of Terry Farrell, a decorated firefighter with FDNY Rescue 4 and the Fire Chief of the Dix Hills Volunteer Fire Department who perished on September 11, 2001, while fighting fires and rescuing victims at the World Trade Center. Originally aimed at providing a scholarship fund for the children of past and present FDNY firefighters, the organization grew rapidly and was able to offer firefighters, their families and needy fire departments with the help they needed in many areas.

Read the entire article.

Janet Wilmoth, contributing writer to the FireChief.com blog, wrote a wonderful piece about the Terry Farrell Firefigters Fund’s presence at this year’s FDIC conference in Indianapolis.  In it, she wrote:

Then I met Brian Farrrell, a silver-haired Irishman who is the founder of the Terry Farrell Firefighters Fund established in memory of his brother, a decorated member of the New York Fire Department’s Rescue 4 and chief of the Dix Hills (N.Y.) Volunteer Fire Department. Terry, along with 342 other firefighters, perished on Sept. 11, 2001, in the World Trade Center attack. The organization honors these modern-day heroes by donating unused firefighting equipment to underfunded fire stations and providing scholarships and additional services to the children and families of active, retired and fallen firefighters across the nation.

The foundation focuses on “living firefighters and getting them the gear they need,” Farrell said.

To raise money, the fund collaborated again this year with Beam Global Spirits & Wine, the producers of Jim Beam Bourbon. The company developed a specialty bottle of Jim Beam to raise awareness for the nonprofit organization, which supports firefighters and their families with educational, medical and equipment needs. It will distribute more than 36,000 cases of Jim Beam bottles with the specialty label — representing a six-fold increase in cases from the previous year — to raise money for the fund. A percentage is donated to the fund. To date, the company already has raised a total of $100,000 for the fund and aims to double that amount this year with an expanded program throughout the United States. One bottle auctioned at the FDIC show brought in $500 for the fund, Farrell said.

Read the entire blog entry here.

As of June 2009, the Terry Farrell Fund will be operating in the following states:

ILLINOIS
KENTUCKY
INDIANA
CALIFORNIA
NEW YORK ARIZONA
COLORADO
NEBRASKA
NORTH DAKOTA
SOUTH DAKOTA
WISCONSIN TEXAS
MISSOURI
MINNESOTA
MICHIGAN
OHIO
OREGON
WASHINGTON
IDAHO
UTAH NEW HAMPSHIRE
NORTH CAROLINA
MARYLAND