THANK YOU BROTHERHOOD RIDE...... Greg Stanley, Naples Daily News The mustached North Naples firefighter with a short crew cut didn’t know what he was starting seven years ago, when he pitched the idea to his firehouse of bicycling to South Carolina. Lt. Jeff Morse had never been a serious cycler. And he didn’t personally know any of the nine dead men he meant to honor by the trek. Morse just knew that he and his wife, Candy, went to bed with the news that an uncertain number firefighters had been killed in an inferno at a Charleston warehouse. When he awoke, the news was reporting all nine of their names. “It just happened to be on our anniversary, my wife and myself,” Morse said. “She didn’t even want to think about it being our anniversary and me not coming home. It could have been any firefighter.” It was going to be a one-time event: a group a Florida firefighters cycle to Charleston on the one-year anniversary of the June 2007 tragedy to show the nine families their loved ones hadn’t been forgotten. But the Brotherhood Ride will set off again Thursday for the seventh straight year. At age 50, Morse is ready to lead a team of 40 firefighters, medics and police on a grueling nine-day ride from Eunice, Louisiana through eastern and central Texas to Houston to honor 19 first responders who died last year in that part the state. As always, the group will target one-year anniversaries of tragedies at the places they stop. Houston firefighters have ridden with the Brotherhood Ride since the beginning. Last May, four of their colleagues died in a blaze at a Houston motel and restaurant. Another firefighter died in Dallas at an apartment fire; two more were killed in Bryon, Texas after a faulty electrical chord lit up a Knights of Columbus hall. And, in the most high-profile case, 11 first responders died in April after stored ammonium nitrate exploded at a West, Texas fertilizer plant. Never Forget Morse and the group he founded have now cycled more than 4,700 miles through 16 states and spent untold hours at year-round fund-raising events. Over the years, the Brotherhood Ride has raised $191,000 for the families of 444 first responders who died in the line of duty. When police officers and firefighters die on the job, so many people tell the families that they’ll never forget — they’ll never forget. But then life has a way of going on, Morse said. The 2012 funeral of fire Chief Kenneth Dewayne Fox of Decaturville, Tennessee, was a big and drawn-out service, said Deana Fox, his wife. The two were married young, and lived in a small Tennessee county halfway between Memphis and Nashville, where Kenny Fox also served as a sheriff’s deputy. In April of 2012, the 39-year-old father of the three pushed two of his firefighters out of the way of a collapsing roof at a fire at the Oak Hill Cafe. Fox was trapped inside and killed. “After the funeral services everybody was there,” Deana Fox said. “Once all that is over with everybody trickles away — not intentionally, but...” She couldn’t really say what it meant for her and her three sons to see a team first responders cycle into their town a year later. “This is a small little town and here these people come all the way from Florida on bicycles to honor my husband, the kids’s daddy,” she said. “They’re taking time away from their families. People just don’t do that for someone they don’t know. There’s good hearts out there.” “It may not seem like a lot, but it is a lot. It’s a statement — an enduring statement — when you put a man on a bicycle and he rides from Florida to podunk Tennessee. That’s serious.” Taking Charge Anybody can send a check, Morse said. He wanted to do something emotional. He and his wife have two cats and no kids. Morse still speaks with a thick Massachusetts accent — he grew up in New Bedford — but has lived in the Naples area for 17 years. He can’t say how many hours he and his wife have put into the Brotherhood Ride, raising money, planning events. He’s not sure how many days of vacation he and the team have used up to make the journeys. “We have no social lives anymore,” Morse said. “But to see these guys burning their vacation time, it’s because they know they still have somebody to come home to.” He thinks the other firefighters were surprised that it was him who came up with the idea, because he wasn’t an avid biker and had never before set up a not-for-profit organization. But North Naples Lt. Jeffrey VanNortwick, who has pedaled every mile that the Brotherhood Ride has logged, said it was really no surprise at all. “He’s the kind of guy that’s able to take charge of things like this,” VanNortwick said. “He’s in our honor guard, he’s a leader of the Elks Lodge. I don’t see anybody else being able to do what he and Candy do. He’s definitely the man for the job.” Morse is heavily involved with the Elks Lodge, and it’s that connection that’s really made the Brotherhood Ride possible, he said. The Elks have let the team set up air mattresses at their facilities every year in nearly every state and feed them breakfast or dinner, depending on if the riders are coming or going. “If we had to pay for hotels and three meals a day for everybody that rides, we’d have nothing left to give to the families,” Morse said. The Brotherhood ride also is expanding. Houston firefighters have formed a Texas state chapter, and organizers hope to keep growing the annual event to other parts of the county. “We’re proud to be first state chapter of the Brotherhood Ride,” said Houston Fire Capt. Tim Dunn. “It’s unfortunate that it continues to happen. But in our line of business, it’s what happens — people pay the ultimate sacrifice.” The 2014 Brotherhood Ride is honoring the following: Dallas Fire Firefighter Stanley Wilson — Dallas Fire Rescue Bryan Fire Lt. Gregory Pickard — Bryan Fire Dept. Lt. Eric Wallace — Bryan Fire Dept. Houston Fire Capt. Matthew Renaud — Houston Fire Dept. EO Robert Bebee — Houston Fire Dept. Firefighter Robert Garner — Houston Fire Dept. Firefighter Anne Sullivan — Houston Fire Dept. West Fire Capt. Kenneth Harris Jr. — Dallas Fire Rescue Capt. Doug Snokhous — West Fire Dept. Capt. Robert Snokhous — West Fire Dept. Firefighter Morris Bridges — West Fire Dept. Firefighter Perry Calvin — Navarro Mills Fire Dept. Firefighter Jerry Chapman — Abbot Fire Dept. Firefighter Cody Dragoo — West Fire Dept. Firefighter Jimmy Matus — West Fire Dept. Firefighter Joey Pustejovsky — West Fire Dept. Firefighter Cyrus Reed — Abbot Fire Dept. Firefighter Kevin Sanders — Bruceville-Eddy Fire Dept. Firefighter Buck Uptmor — West Fire Dept. © 2014 Naples Daily News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 14:00:01 +0000
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