Vigil for Captain Neary and Lt. Sweeney - Sunday, 6PM at Boston & Emerald Street

I'll be there

Chris, let Dann know about this.

Overexposure?

This email was just sent by EKNA:

SUNDAY NIGHT VIGIL
FOR THE FALLEN and INJURED FIREFIGHTERS and ALL THOSE IMPACTED BY THIS DISASTER

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The men from the PFD have made the supreme sacrifice, they stood in a path of destruction to save our neighborhood and our lives.
Review of the event shows that without them, half of our neighborhood or more could have been completely destroyed.

Many other lives have been injured and damaged.

Please.. please be with us on Sunday night. We will honor the losses and share the weight of this difficult time with neighbors
and with the wide family of people who care for our community, care for the soul of Philadelphia, and care for the current heartache.

The families of the lost fighters will be attending.

News crews will be attending. At the vigil we will distribute information on:
Support for families, Support for affected residents, Support for the new effort to prevent factory fire #5 in East Kensington.

WHERE: Site of the fire, Between York and Boston Street by Jasper

WHEN: SUNDAY, APRIL 15th, 2012 6PM

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NOTES:

1) FIREFIGHTER FUNERAL SERVICES:
---for Lt. Robert Neary: Viewing and memorial: 4 p.m. Friday, Givnish Funeral Home, 10975 Academy Rd., Philadelphia. Additional viewing: 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday at Givnish. Burial will be private.
---for Firefighter Daniel Sweeney: Viewing: 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, and 9 to 11 a.m. Saturday, St. Cecilia Roman Catholic Church, 535 Rhawn St., Philadelphia. Service: 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Cecilia. Burial Saturday following service in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, 4001 W. Cheltenham Ave., Cheltenham.

2) OPEN HOUSE at EAST KENSINGTON'S FIREFIGHTER PORTRAIT GALLERY.
There will be an open house at Jesse Gardner's firefighter portrait gallery at 2012-24 East Arizona Street between Coral and Emerald Streets.Sunday from 3-6 for anyone who wants to stop in and reflect on the service and sacrifice of firefighters. Check out the incredible series of firefighter portraits and event photos here. The gallery is two blocks from the site of the fire.
This is an incredible space- no other neighborhood in the country has anything like it to express such admiration and love for the firefighter's service. Jesse has held several events there to honor firefighters- the community, Philadelphia firefighters, as well as NYFD leaders and authors have been touched by the space. Jesse will provide refreshments and food for all who come.

It is not a commercial gallery and nothing is being sold or promoted--it is a venue for education and community outreach. Jesse J. Gardner 215-805-1406 for more info.

3) SUNDAY EVENING FUNDRAISER GATHERING. There will be a gathering after the vigil to bring us closer and continue the conversation. Details t-b-d.

It's looking like a benefit will be @ Atlantis on Sunday following the vigil. Details being firmed up now.

Here is a link to the 3 seperate events. (reception, vigil, fundraiser). I will be adding other links once I get them. I am working with Jesse to get this information out.

http://g.co/maps/ajqt8

Joe

I wish we could go to all/part of this. We are celebrating the kiddo's first birthday with family today. We are there in spirit and with sympathies to the firefighters' families.

So how'd it go???

Diverse crowd of neighborhood folks but not as large as I expected.

Jessie Gardener and Pastor Dan gave heartfelt short speeches. A clergy-woman who's name I did not catch lead a litany. It was nice, brief and not arduous. I am usually not big on these things but in this case I felt it important to be counted. Firemen are the good guys and face plenty of risk without it being created unnecessarily and Kensington and it's residents too often receive bad press. In this case I am proud of our neighborhood, thankful to those who serve us and absolutely disgusted with the City and owners who acted (or didn't) with callous disregard to both.

If they would of gave more than three and a half days notice and held it later this week word could of got out, schedules could of been rearranged and people could of got the night off of work. They posted about it three and a half days ago. People just can't be expected to cancel plans or get the night off of work at the last minute. I know I couldn't go into work the day after it was posted and said hey boss three days from now I need the night off. My boss would of laughed at me and said last time I checked your union contract it said you need to request off in writing a full week in advance.

Over 250 people attended.
Channel 6 said about 80, but they were way off. I know the number was over 250 based not only on my own quick count, but also based on the number of candles and programs which were handed out.
Channel 3 reported "about 300".

The lady who did the Litany was Rebecca Blake.

My husband called over to ladder 10 before heading over from ladder 16 and they didnt know about it. nor did alot of surrounding stations. it was very nice though. it meant alot to them... it takes a tragedy for most people to understand what these men and women do.

I think time is of the essence with these things because you want to keep the community activism and awareness alive. Waiting until every single neighbor could get the day off would be hard. I really wanted to be there but had a longstanding conflict as well. I wasn't mad about it. I knew it needed to happen because it was about honoring those firefighters and not about my personal schedule. Nobody who organized the vigil is going to fault me for being at my son's first birthday party, nor will they fault you for having to go to work that day. I do get that it sucks when you can't be there, but I don't blame anyone for trying to schedule something ASAP. Looks like they had a good enough crowd even though there's always room for more at things like this!