foreign [Music] here with another edition of Chit Chat uh we haven't had one in a while but I think this is going to be an outstanding Chit Chat we're here to talk about tunnel to Towers I know a lot of people you know about it a lot of people you might not know about it and what you might not know is on Sunday September 10th from two to six it Outriggers in New Smyrna Beach they're holding a silent auction to benefit the heroes of our communities and with that I would like these two outstanding gentlemen to introduce themselves to you folks and tell us what we can expect on Sunday and what the organization is all about hi my name is Lieutenant Brian grasanti retired FDNY I retired three months after 9 11. I was an active fire officer there on that day it was a you know I was there for the rescue and recovery and in O3 I moved down to New Smyrna Beach Florida and I became active with the tunnel of towers Foundation about 11 years ago tunnel italis Foundation was born of the tragedy on 9 11. are Stephen silver was a seven year veteran of the FDNY 35 years old five children and Stephen had made plans to play golf on that Tuesday morning which we all know was a picture perfect day in New York he was going to play golf with his brothers in New Jersey now our night shift goes from 6 p.m till 9 A.M the next morning Stephen had gotten relieved early of his duty at around 8 15 and he was in route to New Jersey to meet his brothers and in his pickup truck he had a fire scanner and he heard at a 41 a plane had hit the World Trade Center now at the time Stephen was training to be in a special operations unit called squad one so Stephen knew that his rig was going to be responding to this catastrophic event so he called his wife Sally and said Sally listen tell my brothers can't make off I got to get back to quarters there's something going on in Manhattan so he makes the U-turn gets back to quarters and his rig had already been dispatched and now he's upset because he's going to miss the big one so he comes up with the idea I want to drive to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in Brooklyn and take the tunnel in and then I'll on foot I'll catch up with my guys well when he gets their Brooklyn Battery Tunnel the second tower was struck which now precluded anybody from going through that tunnel other than emergency vehicles so again Stephen says now this is strike two but he wasn't going to be defeated put his truck in park daunt his bunker gear and ran three and a half miles through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel and that's how we have the name tunnel patalis because Steven literally ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to get to the towers where he paid the Supreme sacrifice he died in the collapse of tower too his older brother Frank Sila who was now our CEO within weeks after Stephen tragic death his family got together and they put together this Foundation which was for the benefit of the 911 victims First Responders and the civilians you know we needed a lot of help in those early months or weeks after 9 11. just to get the families well you know we didn't know who was missing who was there we were still everybody was didn't know what was up so the foundation for the first 10 years was doing just that supporting our 9 11 families and victims and we had we grew so exponentially that there was an event on Staten Island I want to say it was 11 years ago a young man named Brandon I can't remember his last name but Brandon came back 22 years old from Afghanistan a quadruple amputee so somebody reached out to Frank and says Frank listen is there anything we can do for this kid because I know you have this charitable Foundation Frank says of course there's something we can do so we put together a team and we built a smart home for Brandon and from that evolved another big portion of our foundation now is that we take care of the catastrophically injured veterans these poor kids that are coming home amputees we will build them a smart home we built over 200 year today and it really changed their lives I mean the things that the things that these homes can do for them I mean just pulling down the stove so you can boil a pot of water we take for granted but we're building homes for them and we're actually a we have a four-prong approach to this Foundation like I said originally it was for the 911 families but now so we take care of our it's called the uh in the line of duty programs we can take care of our catastrophically injured veterans who do survive if they don't survive the gold star widows if they have young children at home will receive a mortgage free home we've done over a thousand year to date with that also a copper fireman anywhere in this country they should die in a lot of Duty if they have young children at home we will pay off their mortgages within weeks of the tragic event and the other leg of our program now which has started two years ago is providing shelter for the homeless veterans we need to take care of our veterans amen so we're getting them off the streets we're buying up defunct hotels or decommissioned school buildings and converting them into single room occupancies but we tell these veterans when we vet them we take them in this is not just housing you're going to go through the program we're going to get you back into the main line we're going to get you off the drugs we're going to take care of your psychiatric needs and that's where the money's going and this year we pledged over 500 000 over 500 million dollars to take care of these four programs and what I'm proud of is that 95 percent of our fundraising goes to our recipients we only take five percent for administrative and for fundraising even our CEO is a volunteer so it's really an amazing Foundation it's close to my heart it really is and that's why I spend my time doing this I I hope that the folks that watch this can pick up your passion while watching it but I could tell you sitting here you can as you were reliving what happened 22 years ago you could feel it coming off of you I still got upset you could feel it and you can see it and you know I can't be more prouder of Outriggers you know it's it is uh one of my most favorite stops in my family stopped in Volusia County and here you are jumping right in with both feet saying hey I want to I want to help with this so my name is Jim rushing the general manager of Outrigger stick Bar and Grill as well as a member of our uh somewhat recently founded Outriggers Community Foundation and this is one of many things I do and it's an honor and a privilege to partner up and co-host with Brian to do this wonderful event um great support throughout the community and it's just really really heartwarming how the community has stepped up we currently have over 99 items with five days to go um and our goal this year is to raise to write a check to tunnel to towers for seventy thousand dollars and we couldn't do it without without the community and without the the generosity that's that's been paid forward to us I'm really proud talk about what our community could expect because you know one of the questions I get and it's well 911 is coming up what are you guys doing where can I go what what's and here is something that you can actually go have a good time and benefit an incredible course so why don't you let everybody know that hey carve out some time on your Sunday it's it you know it's just going to be I've been asking where do you get tickets where do you get tickets it's just a great day at the rig Sunday afternoon we're going to have a fun day we're gonna have a regular menu we're gonna have our regular zombies and margaritas hopefully and uh we're gonna have a great time we've got Reid Foley playing for a couple hours we've got some incredible guest speakers we have a gold star recipient uh Jillian and we have a the Widow of a fallen uh Fallen Osceola County Sheriff Saudia Baxter with that we have some other cool things lined up uh Sheriff thank you for uh the honor of having your color guard show up to present the colors might be followed by a bagpiper it might might be some tears flowing that day good thing might be some tears flowing that day and uh we're just really really proud to do it just come have a good time you want to talk about what you did for the Kissimmee officer's wife four young kids and this is exactly it it goes to show you this isn't just about New York right well that's what you did here thank you I'm glad you brought that point up because I explained that to Jim and last year I every year I do matter of fact I'm going to plug them now a 5K run we do this we just is our 11th annual 5K run this is in Altamonte Springs on Saturday stocks kicks off at 7 30 a.m and it's a lot of fun there's like 1500 participants and the firemen all the different local fire departments weren't upon Lake Mary they actually do the three and a half miles in bunker gear in this heat and they really take it serious I mean it's a great event great sponsors will be there so last year after a well two years ago after I did the event on Saturday I stopped by Outriggers because I've known Jim for over 10 years now and Jim was there and the owner of the restaurant was there and I say Tim I said you know what I just had an epiphany driving here back from Altamonte as you know I do this event every year in Lake Mary which I'm very proud to do actually but I'm from New Smyrna I'd like to bring the party here also and Jim says well what do you got because I know Jim's a Navy veteran I knew he'd be on board I think it was Brian it's a done deal and one of the owners was sitting at the bar and he goes what are you guys talking about when I explained to him what tunnel of town is all about he goes well there's only one option if we're doing it we're going big I said thank you so Jim and I hit the ground running and we only had like maybe six weeks last year right to get it started and I was I thought it was quite successful but this year we're taking it to the next level because now we ironed out all the you know nooks and crannies and we figure out how we're gonna get this done but I'm very proud of having these two female recipients because now a lot of people think oh 911 they think of New York City right but this this is proved positive that these young ladies are recipients that had their mortgages paid off due to their tragedies Saudia baxton's husband Matthew was a Kissimmee police officer 2017 he was shot in the neck by a EDP the range person left three beautiful daughters at home Saudi is also a Kissimmee police officer and within three days she got a call from Frank seller saying you no longer have a mortgage and she even told me she was Brian as a single police officer my salary was not enough to support three young girls and pay my mortgage so this is life-changing yep and now it doesn't disrupt the flow of the family that's why we say with the young children that's the catch-all if you have young we don't want to disrupt their lives more than there has to be disrupted sure sure and it's a huge disruption a bit knowing it peace of mind that I have my home right my kids could be raised annuity for the church this is where my dad was exactly yeah absolutely it's incredible so which one of you gentlemen want to talk about one of our auction items here so this this was really really neat neat item generously donated by David worth from uh worst Studios uh he does some amazing work with with ancient uh fishing hooks it's kind of his his stick so he was inspired to do a tunnel to towers and inside the tunnel is an actual rivet from the World Trade Center it's done in a uh Keys the wood it's made from is from the keys it's Tamarind wood on top of native Florida coral and he put a lot of heart and soul and love into this and this like I said this is just one of many really really cool items that you could bid on coming up Sunday as a matter of fact you can bet on it now our auction is live if you go to our website and outriggersnsb.com you can make a generous donation or bid on any of the items the item auctions will stay live until Sunday at 6 pm now I have to ask you you know Sunday is NFL football opens up and at 4 30 my Philadelphia Eagles Take on the New England Patriots is there going to be a chance that that game may be on one of the television sets there around 4 30. [Laughter] either way I have Eagles radio fan like me hey well you don't know what's going to happen you don't know but you know I would ask everybody that watches this uh take time out of your Sunday to swing by Outriggers you know we have watched what they have done for fallen firefighters and police officers and military personnel and yet here you see it extend our community and if you remember that story of the two Kissimmee police officers that were killed uh one left behind three young beautiful girls and the fact that she's going to be one of the speakers uh it rings true with this this organization in his home because these are Central Florida you know people actually Jillian's from Tampa but still it just proves the people that are coming to Outriggers that it can hit home it can be in your own backyard it's not just the New York Foundation we cover veterans all over the country police officers and firefighters I like amen you know and if one of the Beauties if you listen to what everybody was talking about is you know the CEO takes no money you know it's 95 of what you give goes other than what's new needed for advertising and for fundraising so everything you can donate uh it's going into these homes and I think when you hear these two women speak uh on top of the 911 services that we're going to have I think it's gonna it's gonna really tug at your heartstrings to say I got I got to get behind these folks uh this is one way of giving back uh to the people who protect and service day in and day out protect our nation protect our communities we all made that promise we'll never forget and this is living proof tunnel italics that would not forget it absolutely forget absolutely sure let me throw one more thing out there for you for those Fanatics I'm a football fanatic but my day is Saturday yeah if you know what I mean um you don't need to be there you can go to our website Outriggers msb.com you can place a bid on any of the items we're 100 online uh even if you're there you're going to be betting online so stay home watch football and just sit there with your phone watching football on the TV and your phone clicking and bidding on items and I'm sure what we'll do is when it gets up there we'll be able to put the QR code up right on the screen so they can make it flashing and do that right off of the internet I'd like to say one more thing sure I don't know if you guys are familiar with Lando Lakes Florida yep out on the west coast near Newport Richie about four or five years ago an anonymous donated donated 75 acres to the tunnel Towers foundation and tall Frank do whatever you got to do with it so it was just last year on December the 17th we broke around and gave away one of a hundred homes that we're building for the either veterans or perhaps with the widows and it's let us do good Village that is our logo a tunnel of towers that was a saying of Saint Francis of Assisi while we have time letters do good and this Village is going to be amazing because it'll be a community center there'll be outdoor activities and now all the kids in this neighborhood are growing up with the same scenario you know missing a parent or a parent in a wheelchair so we hope that Glenda Lakes will be one of many of these Villages that we can do throughout the nation that's incredible you know and it's one of the things that I always say about what why I'm so proud to work and live and play in Florida is Volusia County in particular because that's my County when something happens the people that line up and want to help it's amazing and I think I think Floridians are like that in general and the fact that we're doing this now I really think that with the people the viewers we have I think we're going to see a record-setting day I I'm hopeful that September 10th 2023 is The Benchmark for you guys if that's when you want to go by every year that this is what we did on September 10 2023 and every year try to top that and make it even better absolutely all right well sure I appreciate you guys coming in I appreciate this beautiful piece of art and you know we'll get this out as quick as we can thank you for tuning in and depending on your comments we'll see if we can kind of revive this program again and try to do at least something monthly but hey what better guess this is going to kind of the top to do this again so God bless everybody God bless America stay safe and we'll see it Outriggers on September 10th [Music]