Our brave fire fighters dedicate their lives to protecting our community, often putting themselves in harm’s way. Some of these courageous men and women have even lost their lives in the service of others. The oath that our firefighters take, to put service before self, is the cornerstone of our profession – even knowing that it sometimes comes at a great personal cost. So, it is up to us to remember and honor their bravery, dedication, and sacrifice. We have that opportunity with this memorial. Together we can ensure their legacy lives on and that their contributions are never forgotten. For more information, visit www.mesachamber.org
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 The Mesa Chamber is making sure our men and women firefighters who have lost their lives
00:05 serving the community are remembered.
00:06 Joining me today to tell us how you can help is Sally Harrison, President and CEO of the
00:11 Mesa Chamber and Scott Finnegan, President of the United Mesa Firefighters Local 2260.
00:17 So good morning to you.
00:18 How are you doing?
00:19 Good morning.
00:20 We're good.
00:21 Thank you.
00:22 I love this.
00:23 This is a very important memorial that I'm surprised we don't have one already in Mesa
00:24 that should be done.
00:25 And so, Sally, let's talk about again how important our firefighters are to the community
00:30 throughout all of Arizona and Mesa area.
00:33 Well, the Chamber has been really involved in both public safety with police and fire
00:40 for a very long time.
00:41 And so when this opportunity came up, it just made sense for us to get involved.
00:45 Yeah.
00:46 And it's a memorial that is actually a place that's been picked out.
00:48 Yes.
00:49 But the funding is needed and that's very important.
00:51 Right.
00:52 Right.
00:53 And so obviously the Chamber has a lot of members and we have a lot of people in our
00:58 community and we decided that it made sense for us to do some outreach in partnership
01:03 with Mesa Fire.
01:05 Yeah.
01:06 And what's also important is that even if you don't live in Mesa and you want to support
01:08 the firefighters, you can be a part of this.
01:10 Yes.
01:11 It's a big family.
01:12 Yeah, it is.
01:13 Scott, let's talk about this memorial and how important it is to remember those who
01:17 have served our community in different ways and have lost their lives serving our community.
01:21 And again, having this memorial is going to be a fantastic way, an important way for families
01:26 to see how important their loved ones were.
01:29 Yeah, for sure.
01:30 So Mesa just celebrated, Mesa Fire Medical just celebrated 125 years.
01:35 And so with that 125 years, you know, the first 60 or so, we didn't see any loss of
01:41 life, right?
01:42 LODD is what we call it.
01:44 But we've unfortunately since 1940, we've experienced 10.
01:49 And so we have 10 individuals that we will be putting on this memorial and allowing family,
01:54 friends, the community to come together and pay tribute to those that serve the community
01:58 and put service before self.
02:00 That's so important.
02:01 Let's talk about the memorial and what it's going to look like.
02:03 Are there going to be bricks for people to purchase to put their names on?
02:07 Yes.
02:08 Yeah.
02:09 So the bricks start at $150 and you can actually go to the Chamber's website and there's a
02:12 little search tab there.
02:13 If you just put in memorial, the second, I guess, box, yeah, second page will pop up.
02:20 You can click on that and it has all the information there.
02:23 And again, this is a great way for businesses to get involved, to show their support to
02:27 the firefighter families and also for individuals that want to name somebody.
02:32 Yeah.
02:33 Who doesn't love a firefighter, right?
02:34 And it's just, it's a wonderful way to memorialize and to show tribute to the families that are
02:41 left behind.
02:42 All right.
02:43 And where will the memorial be located?
02:44 So the memorial is just behind Fire Station 201 in Mesa.
02:47 So that's Mesa Drive and First Street.
02:50 So if you just go to the north of that, there's a little park.
02:52 We haven't renamed it yet, but it looks like one of the names that catches everybody's
02:57 eye is Firefighter Memorial Park or just Memorial Park.
03:00 Oh, that's nice.
03:01 I like that.
03:02 And the thing is that this needs to go now.
03:03 We want to start getting it out there.
03:05 So we want people to start getting involved and helping out.
03:08 But of course, we know even after, you know, some of the bricks are laid and a lot of bricks
03:12 will be laid, it still goes on to help our firefighters, doesn't it?
03:16 Absolutely.
03:17 So very important to get the memorial going and stuff like that.
03:19 Okay.
03:20 So again, how can people find out more about it?
03:23 MesaChamber.org is our website.
03:25 There's bricks for sale, but there's also challenge coins and some benches.
03:30 Yes.
03:31 Oh, nice.
03:32 So it's going to be a whole development going in there.
03:33 Right.
03:34 So a lot of...
03:35 Sponsor a bench.
03:36 Yeah.
03:37 And how many benches do you know?
03:38 Have you decided yet?
03:39 I believe we have three.
03:40 Three?
03:41 Three benches that come around basically the enclosure that you would be looking at all
03:45 the plaques.
03:46 And this is going to be open to the public to go visit too when it's time.
03:49 Absolutely.
03:50 Yes.
03:51 This is so important.
03:52 Well, thank you for coming in.
03:53 And of course, this is such an important memorial to have done.
03:54 So information's over on, of course, the screen and you can head over to azdailymix.com to
04:00 find out more.
04:01 So thank you.
04:02 Thank you.
04:03 All right.
04:04 Stick around.
04:05 We'll be right back after this here on The CW7.
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