Excerpts from the DailyHerald.com:
On Saturday evening, Glenbard East High school, 1014 S. Main St. in Lombard, will host the Illinois Fire Chiefs vs. Celebrity Sports Legends charity basketball game. Doors open at 6 p.m. and tip off is at 6:30 p.m.
Celebrities include, Glenbard East High AD and former Chicago Bear D’Wayne Bates, former Chicago Cub Chico Walker, a few members of the Chicago Bliss along with local Fire Chief’s and firefighters.
The Illinois Fire Chiefs Association will donate the proceeds of the game, to fund firefighter scholarships.
Tickets for this event are $15. Children 6 and under are admitted free. You may order tickets by calling (630) 592-9646 or go to www.eventbrite.com. Proceeds go to IFCA Scholarship.
If you can’t make it to the game, you can make a donation to fund a scholarship for a firefighter. Visit www.illinoisfirechiefs.org for more information or mail your check payable to Illinois Fire Chief’s Foundation 205 E. Butterfield Rd. Suite 911 Elmhurst, Illinois 60126.
Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
Firefighters, they run into burning buildings so that others may live.
Nobody knows this better than former Lemont Fire Chief Andy O’Donnell. He has served forty-five active years in fire service.
” At ten years old, I had a life changing experience,” said O’Donnell. ” I was walking to the library in the South Shore of Chicago. I peeked inside a neighborhood firehouse, “Hey You, come here,” yelled a firefighter. He invited me in, showed me around and told me to come back”.
I began my career as a volunteer firefighter in Crestwood, ” O’Donnell begins.” I was hired in Chicago and spent 34 years there serving in the busiest firehouses in the city,” he added.
O’Donnell was at 46th & Cottage Grove then 40th and State, Engine 16 and spent 6 years in the Pullman firehouse. At one time O’Donnell commanded eighteen fire stations. His final position with the CFD was at the fire academy, with his final years serving as Chief in Lemont.
This Saturday, O’Donnell will join firefighters, sports celebrities and fans to raise funds for the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association Scholarship program through a charity basketball game at Glenbard East High School. The proceeds will go for scholarships to those in fire service.
” Firefighters throughout the state can apply for these grants,” O’Donnell said. ” We gave about $66,000 last year. We try and reach all parts of the state from firefighters to fire chiefs. It doesn’t matter if you’re full time, part time or volunteer, everyone needs a little education,” adds O’Donnell. ” These scholarships afford the firefighters the opportunity to go to school. The smarter they are, they provide better fire protection to the public”.
Another love for O’Donnell is his involvement with the Fire Museum of Greater Chicago. What began with twelve guys at a kitchen table in a Chicago rectory is now home to thousands of Chicago fire artifacts.
” We got into an old firehouse at 52nd and Western and opened up this museum four years ago,” explains O’Donnell. ” We have a good history of 23,000 who joined the Chicago Fire Department, the first full-time being in 1858.”
They are looking for donations of fire equipment and photos from Chicago and surrounding departments. If you have an item to donate, go to www.FireMuseumOfGreaterChicago.org
” We’re going have a binder on every fire company ever started in Chicago and even the suburban departments,” O’Donnell said. ” We have shown pictures to families that they’ve never seen before”.
” After 911, people would ask me, how could firefighters ever go into a building like that”? ” Well,” said O’Donnell, ” we belong to a goofy kind of club, a lot of people don’t understand, we get a kick out of helping others”.
