Dawn Ostrem
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Oct 12/01) - A spokesperson for New York firefighters says the amount of money raised in this community is incredible.

"What people have done in your community is incredible, marvellous," said Tom Butler, speaking for the Uniformed Firefighter's Association from his office in New York this week. "It will really go a long way and for that we are grateful."

The Yellowknife fundraising drive for the 911 Disaster Relief Fund began Sept. 15, when crowds of people and lineups of cars and trucks crowded into the city fire department parking lot.

The car wash was a huge success, raising more than $31,000, but the money kept trickling in.

On Oct. 10 community members, firefighters and their families gathered in the garage around fire engine Lucky 7 to present a $40,000 cheque to Terry Ritchie, vice-president of the sixth district of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

"It was the highest amounts of money raised for the size of the community," said Ritchie, who oversees departments throughout Western Canada.

Most communities near Yellowknife's 18,000-person population raised between $8,000 and $10,000.

Calgary, with close to a million residents, raised $65,000 in a dual-goal drive that also collected money for muscular dystrophy.

Ritchie said people from other districts jokingly asked if Yellowknife's firefighters charged $5,000 per vehicle at the car wash.

"I did not expect it either," he added. "I'll be honest with you, I thought they got the dot (of the sum) in the wrong place."

Butler, a public relations representative for the New York firefighters said, "Heart-ache does not even begin to explain the pain the families of firefighters are going through."

The money sent to support those firefighters, and all other emergency workers who are dead or missing in the rubble of the World Trade Center towers, has not been added up yet.

Butler said a board of directors for the firefighters' widows and children's fund has traditionally dispersed the money through gifts, scholarships, ball games, theatre and other causes.

"It really is a family," he added, referring to the global network of firefighters.

Yellowknife's deputy fire chief, Sandy McPhee, said the Yellowknife department needed to do very little soliciting.

"There were probably about 20 or 30 people who came to the department saying they missed the car wash," he said. "It was an overwhelming response from the public. They just dumped money on us."