Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 18, 1995 TAG: 9506200058
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TONYA WOODS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BURNT CHIMNEY LENGTH: Medium
The reward of being a firefighter, a police officer or a rescue worker is helping people.
That was the message conveyed to nearly 60 people Saturday at the Booker T. Washington Monument in Franklin County during Safety Appreciation Day.
"My father was a volunteer firefighter, and I remember all the excitement and commitment that went along with that job," said Betsy Haynes, park ranger at the monument.
The safety appreciation program had been in the making since last year, said Connie Mays, acting safety officer at the park. When she began planning the program, Mays decided to expand its scope beyond Franklin County.
"It didn't seem right to honor our safety workers only, when there were so many working hard in Oklahoma City," she said.
So, Oklahoma City Councilman Mark Schwartz was in Franklin County on Saturday as a guest speaker for the event. He was presented a plaque for his volunteer rescue efforts days after the bombing.
Schwartz, who helped evacuate people from the federal building, said the depth of the service of public safety workers did not sink in until the afternoon of the bombing.
"There were so many nurses, doctors, policemen, firefighters and volunteers there," he said. "I think the public really began to appreciate public safety a lot more after that day."
At Saturday's ceremony, Rep. L.F. Payne, D-Nelson County, and state Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, told the audience the importance of remembering the intensive training public safety workers must complete and the sacrifices they make.
Sarah Poland of Franklin County said she and her family have had to sacrifice time with her husband, Rick, who is a volunteer rescue driver for the Scruggs community.
"There are times when we've been in the middle of doing something, but then when his scanner goes off, he has to leave," she said. "But these are sacrifices we don't mind making because we know he's going to help someone."
For Ken Simpson, a real estate agent in Smith Mountain Lake, the picture of the firefighter carrying a child from the bombed building drove him to do something to remember the victims.
His scrap-iron sculpture of a child being rescued from the building was unveiled Saturday. The statue, which is 12 feet high and 9 feet wide, features a candleholder at its base that holds 19 candles, one for each of the children killed in the bombing.
"This was a very emotional piece for me to do," Simpson said of the statue, which took him five weeks to complete. "I put the candles there because I figured the parents of those children may want to come and light them or at least keep a candle in the holder in remembrance of their child."
He hopes to deliver the statue to Oklahoma City eventually.
by CNB