DIONNE WALKER
Firehouse.com News

Officials from the Firefighter’s Emerald Society of Westchester, N.Y. recently announced plans to establish a fundraiser and special educational trust fund for the children of New York firefighters John Downing, Harry Ford and Brian Fahey, whose deaths in a tragic Father’s Day blast riveted the nation in June.

AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett Wearing his father's helmet, Brendan Fahey, 8, the son of New York City firefighter Brian D. Fahey, cries as his father's casket is carried out of Saint Raymond's Roman Catholic Church Thursday, June 21, 2001 in East Rockaway, N.Y. Fahey was one of three firefighters killed on Father's Day, June 17, 2001, while fighting a fire in the Astoria section of the Queens borough of New York.

The Emerald Hero Fund, Inc. a non profit corporation, will be aimed at providing monetary resources for the future education of the 8 children left fatherless following the accident. Group organizers hope a fundraiser, slated for September 16 in Yonkers, N.Y., will help get the fund on its feet, said Sean McGee, vice president of the Emerald Hero Fund and a volunteer firefighter in East Chester, N.Y.

The concept for the fund came almost directly after the funeral of John Downing when, McGee said, a picture of one of the firefighters’ children in mourning moved him to action. McGee said he went to his assistant chief, who plays in a band, with an idea for how to help the families.

"I told him I knew a few other bands and maybe we could think of having a little benefit just to raise a few dollars," he said. "That’s really how it started."

Many meetings and flyers later, what started out as a small idea has grown to a huge one, gaining local press coverage and public interest in donating to the fund, McGee said. One donator, who chose to remain anonymous, even pledged $50,000 to the fund if the organizers could match it. Another retired military man is donating an entire month’s pension, McGee said.

"Realistically, they thought they could raise about 10 or 20 thousand dollars at first," he said. "Now we’re throwing around numbers [like] a quarter of a million."

The fundraiser will feature various traditional bands as well as a rock band and even a hip-hop band, McGee said. The money raised by the event will be deposited into a fund that will go directly to the children.

"We wanted to make sure this money was for the kids, for their future," he said, adding that organizers have been told the families of Ford, Fahey and Downing "have been very moved."

McGee said that should something ever befall him, he would hope his own children were fortunate enough to receive the help of strangers.

"Deep down everybody is unselfish and they always care about the other ones, I’m sure that’s what these guys were thinking," he said.

To make donations, send checks made payable to "Emerald Hero Fund Inc." to P.O. Box 1825, New City, NY, 10956. For more information call 845-639-0217 or email emeraldherofund@aol.com