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.
