Gary Sinise Foundation serves up lunch to local firefighters
Thirty Orlando firefighters were treated to sweet barbecue chicken and pork sandwiches with warm beans and mac n’cheese Tuesday afternoon as a way to thank them for the work they’ve provided the community during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Serving Heroes” event was organized by members of the Gary Sinise Foundation’s Central Florida Chapter, which is preparing to officially open its doors Saturday to help Central Florida’s families of fallen military plus veterans and first responders, said chapter president Karen Connors.
“We’ve been working, really, since April to a create a board, and get established and begin helping our veterans, Gold Star families and first responders,” Connors said. “A lot of people don’t know that we also support first responders. So it was important for us to get that word out quickly.”
The foundation has sent Gold Star families to Walt Disney World on its “Snowball Express” for the last several years after the foundation was first established in 2017 by the actor Gary Sinise, best known for his role as “Lt. Dan” in “Forrest Gump.”
With barbecue goodies provided by Mission BBQ, firefighters in groups of 10 collected a plate inside OFD’s Station No. 1, the Big House located on Central Boulevard in downtown Orlando.
The small
groupings have been typical since the start of the pandemic, and have made the job of being a firefighter much more demanding, said Chief Benjamin Barksdale.
“The social distancing has been the hardest part of this for us,” Barksdale said. “We’re used to having 18 people in a shift gathering around for meals. That’s when we’d be to get together, and keep morale high. That’s been hard to do now.”
OFD has had a challenging summer starting with 87 firefighters testing positive for COVID-19 in June. Of the infected, 32 of them were new recruits. Those who tested positive went into a 14-day quarantine.
July proved to be a challenging time as well as the number of positive COVID patients in need of transport increased, but Barksdale was pleased to report that no firefighters tested positive for the virus in that time. Despite such challenges, Barksdale says events like the barbecue meal are encouraging.
“It helps keep the morale up,” he said. “Even if we’re eating our meals separately, it helps knowing the meal came from the community, and it gives us confidence to have their support.”
The Central Florida Chapter’s Saturday launch will feature a live video event on Facebook streaming at 7 p.m. Sinise will be introducing the chapter and its president during the event, which can also be viewed at the Gary Sinise Foundation’s website and on its YouTube account.