March , 2010

Springtime has come to the south. For all you bird people the bluebirds are already building their nests and the hummingbirds should be here in the next two weeks.

MEMBER REPORT:

Jacqueline Addison, wife of David Addison, (retired) passed away on February 26, 2010.

Richard Tankersley has finished his chemotherapy and the results are good and all signs of the cancer are gone.

Mikey Stoops (is that your real name?) will be going into the hospital on April 13, 2010 to have a knee replacement.

Station 10 responded to the home of Jim Whiley, retired (Sta.10) he is reported to be in very bad health.

As always we wish the very best for these members.

The Association has received several thanks you notices from family members.

We received a thank you from Karen Love and daughter (Davis Love), Buddy Harris.

The Firehouse Subs family, Robin, Chris and Rob (Capt video) provided food for the Davis Love family on Friday night before the funeral. Many thanks.

EVENTS:

Monthly Retiree’s Breakfast, April 8, 2010 at Piccadilly.

James Sparks was awarded the Joseph Stitchway Firefighter of the Year Award at the annual awards ceremony held at Firefighter Hall on Friday, March 5, 2010. Bob Milnor, Retired Sheriff of Bradford Country representing Star and Shield Insurance generously provided the meal for this event.

On Saturday, April 17, 2010 at 6:00 the Annual Guns and Hoses fundraiser will be held at the Jacksonville Arena. This event is expected to be another sell out so if you want tickets call ticket masters now.

At the annual Jacksonville Firemen’s Credit Union meeting held on Saturday, March 27, 2010 at Firefighter’s Hall, Retired Chief Danny Ingle was re-elected to the Board of Directors.

Donuts and coffee on payday Friday will resume in the month of April.

The 5th Annual Firefighters Widow’s Luncheon will be held at Firefighter’s Hall on Wednesday, April 7, 2010. The luncheon is a fun time for these widow’s to re-establish friendships and honor their late husbands.

American Legion Post 137 at 5443 San Juan Ave. will host its annual Police and Firefighters Appreciation Dinner on Sunday, April ll, 2010 from 1:30pm until 7:30pm.
All current, retired and family members are invited. R.S.V.P. to Vera Stevens 394-7215.

SPECIAL REPORTS:

Did you notice at the March breakfast Ronnie Learn’s coke crate was empty? People in the back of the room kept yelling “Ronnie stand up”, he wasn’t there. He missed the breakfast. Duke Denson was concerned and called him on the cell phone. Ronnie said he was fishing with Jim White, oops it looks like Arnold Haddock lost his fishing partner to
Ronnie Learn.

At the funeral of David Addison’s wife, a young lady noticed the Retired Firefighter’s Association lapel pin wore by Wayne Doolittle. She identified herself as Joyce Lloyd, the daughter of Chief Earl Matthews. Joyce relayed the story that her father was known as “Mr. Territory”. Joyce remembers riding territory with her father and the only way to get him to stop riding was for the family to say that they smell of hamburgers.

On Thursday, March 4, 2010 in the Times Union there was an article about music in the schools. In the article is featured a blue grass band and in that band is Jane Royal. Jane is the wife of Retired Engineer Harvey Royal (E-31). Jane plays the bass for a blue grass band and also in a Celtic group. Jane teaches music to a youth group who never played instruments before and recently took first place in the state.

Retired Engineer Billy Sallette (Com-van), ex- BBQ master, has found a new profession.
He will now be assisting in the Arnold Palmer Golf Tournament in Bay Hill. Billy will now be the SHOT LINK LASER MAN. What does a SHOT LINK LASER MAN do? It is too high tech to explain in this newsletter but we are sure Billy would be proud to explain it to you.

The Times Union had a very nice article about the son of retired Chief Wendell Black (F2). You will be hearing a lot of good things about Dean Black in the near future.

FISHING TOURNAMENT REPORT

The 28th Annual Firefighters Fishing Tournament held in Suwannee, Florida on March 15 -18, 2010. This year’s t fishing was better than last because thankfully we had no flood this year. The weather was exceptional and the turnout great. Monday night the dinner was provided by Salt Creek Restaurant and Ginger (Wayne’s aunt). Tuesday night Larry Harrold did an outstanding job in preparing an excellent fish dinner. Wednesday night was famous “MOTEL” chili by tournament Director, Wayne Doolittle. Thursday night was banquet night, a mouthwatering BBQ dinner with all the trimmings was cooked by Charlie Geiger and Buddy Dux. Some local residents attended and were quite pleased that it was not fish .

The fishing tournament present Ben West, Chief of the Suwannee County Volunteers with 5 GPS units for their apparatus.

The Orange County Local walked away with the fishing trophy and the hard luck trophy went to retired Chief Larry Pullo. Larry was sick the entire tournament. There were also four young firefighters from Jacksonville that got stuck on a sand bar for 6 hours, Allen Hopper, David Squires, Danny Ray and Matt McCormack. These awards were awarded by co-chairpersons John Wood and Wiley Hart.

Retired Fire Chief John White presented the first Michael Priester Memorial award to Larry Harrold. The award is named for Michael Priester who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 2009 in Deland. Michael was the person that cooked breakfast on Thursdays at the annual fishing tournament since it first started 28 years ago. Michael was also the first recipient of the James Carver Award.

Each day at lunch grillmaster Irvin Pfister did a wonderful job providing hot dogs and sausage dogs. The meat for the lunches were provided by Cozie Roberts and Bill Crabtree.