Community Corner

Volunteers Thank Danbury Firefighters/Police Ambulance With Lunch Since 9/11

Friends of Local Heroes serve lunch to public safety workers Friday, an annual event in honor and in memory of the Sept. 11 sacrifices by so many public safety workers.

A group of volunteers, who work or used to work at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, served lunch Friday to Danbury public safety workers as they have once every year since 9/11/01.

The volunteers set up tables, chairs and chaffing dishes with pulled pork, salad, cole slaw and desserts at the Danbury Fire Department's New Street headquarters. They serveed the ambulance crews, police crews and fire fighters who showed up for lunch.

"We started this in 2002," said Paul Lang, who works at Boehringer Ingelheim and is a former fire chief in Torrington. Lang volunteered at Ground Zero immediately after the attack, and he said when he returned, he wanted to do something for public safety workers.

He said for the first three or four years, Boeheringer Ingelheim paid for the food, but since then, volunteers hold fundraisers and they raise the money themselves. The 15 to 20 volunteers formed Friends of Local Heroes.

"We want to help the Fire Fighters and Police who protect us so well," said Lynn-Mary Dillon, one of the volunteers.

"I've been doing this for 11 years," said Keith Gailliard, "because I love doing it."

"We knew we had to do something," Lang said. 


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