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Bucks For Trucks

Aired January 03, 2003 - 13:52   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A promise delivered. The spirit of goodwill after September 11th still moves across the nation. Louisiana firefighters donated seven new fire vehicles and cars to New York City today. They raised nearly $1 million through a bucks-for- trucks campaign.
Fire Chief Butch Browning from Louisiana helped spearhead the project.

Good to see you, chief.

BUTCH BROWNING, GONZALES, LA. FIRE DEPT.: Good to see you, too.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about how this all started.

BROWNING: It started real simply. Our governor, Mike Foster, received a telephone call on his weekly radio address, saying why don't Louisiana do something to help New York? We see the president standing on a burned-out fire truck. We build fire trucks in Louisiana. Why don't we donate a fire truck to New York?

PHILLIPS: Wow. So talk about everybody that pitched in. You had kids bring in a dollar to school. You had legislators giving $100. I mean, talk about everybody and what they did.

BROWNING: Well, it all started the first day. The governor brought a small committee together. He brought us before the state legislature to announce that we were going to try to raise hopefully $500,000 to buy one fire truck. We went before the legislature. Within four minutes we had raised $20,000. Every state legislature actually donated money to make the project happen.

PHILLIPS: What about firefighters? What did they do?

BROWNING: Firefighters worked on the street corner. We shook our fire boots. We collected from the richest people in the world to the poorest people in the world. People really came together, and it showed a lot for Louisiana. It shows what Louisiana people believe in.

We wanted to put our hands on the healing process. This fund- raising effort started in the schools, where children brought pennies, and dimes and dollars to school. Our colleges and universities got on board and donated money, and before you knew it, I guess we had over $1 million to help the people of New York recover from the devastating tragedy of September 11th.

PHILLIPS: You mentioned the kids and the pennies they would bring to donate. Tell me about that Altoid box you received.

BROWNING: The governor actually received it. A young child gave the governor an Altoid box with 35 cents. When we went last year to deliver the first truck, the governor presented that to station 283 to keep as kind of a momento of what Louisiana people were trying to do to help them.

PHILLIPS: That's amazing. All right, now, not only did you raise the money to buy these trucks, but it was folks in Louisiana that built the trucks, right?

BROWNING: Right. We have one of the largest manufacturers of fire trucks here in the state of Louisiana, Farrera (ph) Fire Apparatus. Farrera (ph) came to the table with their employees and committed to building this truck in about a month and a half, which is remarkable. They worked seven days a week, day and night. Some folks even volunteered, instead of getting paid overtime, they volunteered to make it happen.

PHILLIPS: The attitude toward firefighters has definitely changed since 9/11, hasn't it?

BROWNING: Absolutely. We have noticed that more people want to pursue careers in fire departments. More people want to volunteer in their community to be firefighters. You know, we kind of live under a motto here in Louisiana among the firemen, is, you know, you're not heroes for what you do, you're a hero for what you may have to do, and that just seems to bring many people to our doors wanting to help and make our community safer and stronger.

PHILLIPS: So today in New York, firefighters received these trucks. What did they say to you?

BROWNING: Well, we have since a year ago when the first truck was delivered, we have made lifelong friends with the New York folks. It's people just like us, and they're really hurting. To go through and lose what they have lost insofar as firefighter firefighters, police officers and ordinary citizens. They need our whole country to come together and support them, and what we did was just a small part of that support.

PHILLIPS: Fire Chief Butch Browning of Gonzalez, Louisiana, we thank you for your time, and we salute your efforts.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 3, 2003 - 13:52   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A promise delivered. The spirit of goodwill after September 11th still moves across the nation. Louisiana firefighters donated seven new fire vehicles and cars to New York City today. They raised nearly $1 million through a bucks-for- trucks campaign.
Fire Chief Butch Browning from Louisiana helped spearhead the project.

Good to see you, chief.

BUTCH BROWNING, GONZALES, LA. FIRE DEPT.: Good to see you, too.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about how this all started.

BROWNING: It started real simply. Our governor, Mike Foster, received a telephone call on his weekly radio address, saying why don't Louisiana do something to help New York? We see the president standing on a burned-out fire truck. We build fire trucks in Louisiana. Why don't we donate a fire truck to New York?

PHILLIPS: Wow. So talk about everybody that pitched in. You had kids bring in a dollar to school. You had legislators giving $100. I mean, talk about everybody and what they did.

BROWNING: Well, it all started the first day. The governor brought a small committee together. He brought us before the state legislature to announce that we were going to try to raise hopefully $500,000 to buy one fire truck. We went before the legislature. Within four minutes we had raised $20,000. Every state legislature actually donated money to make the project happen.

PHILLIPS: What about firefighters? What did they do?

BROWNING: Firefighters worked on the street corner. We shook our fire boots. We collected from the richest people in the world to the poorest people in the world. People really came together, and it showed a lot for Louisiana. It shows what Louisiana people believe in.

We wanted to put our hands on the healing process. This fund- raising effort started in the schools, where children brought pennies, and dimes and dollars to school. Our colleges and universities got on board and donated money, and before you knew it, I guess we had over $1 million to help the people of New York recover from the devastating tragedy of September 11th.

PHILLIPS: You mentioned the kids and the pennies they would bring to donate. Tell me about that Altoid box you received.

BROWNING: The governor actually received it. A young child gave the governor an Altoid box with 35 cents. When we went last year to deliver the first truck, the governor presented that to station 283 to keep as kind of a momento of what Louisiana people were trying to do to help them.

PHILLIPS: That's amazing. All right, now, not only did you raise the money to buy these trucks, but it was folks in Louisiana that built the trucks, right?

BROWNING: Right. We have one of the largest manufacturers of fire trucks here in the state of Louisiana, Farrera (ph) Fire Apparatus. Farrera (ph) came to the table with their employees and committed to building this truck in about a month and a half, which is remarkable. They worked seven days a week, day and night. Some folks even volunteered, instead of getting paid overtime, they volunteered to make it happen.

PHILLIPS: The attitude toward firefighters has definitely changed since 9/11, hasn't it?

BROWNING: Absolutely. We have noticed that more people want to pursue careers in fire departments. More people want to volunteer in their community to be firefighters. You know, we kind of live under a motto here in Louisiana among the firemen, is, you know, you're not heroes for what you do, you're a hero for what you may have to do, and that just seems to bring many people to our doors wanting to help and make our community safer and stronger.

PHILLIPS: So today in New York, firefighters received these trucks. What did they say to you?

BROWNING: Well, we have since a year ago when the first truck was delivered, we have made lifelong friends with the New York folks. It's people just like us, and they're really hurting. To go through and lose what they have lost insofar as firefighter firefighters, police officers and ordinary citizens. They need our whole country to come together and support them, and what we did was just a small part of that support.

PHILLIPS: Fire Chief Butch Browning of Gonzalez, Louisiana, we thank you for your time, and we salute your efforts.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com