Nassau County Firefighters Collect Donations For Wounded Service Members

NASSAU COUNTY, NY. — As the holidays draw near, the Nassau County Firefighters Operation Wounded Warrior is gearing up for what has become a yearly tradition for the first responders group: Packing up box trucks full of clothes, electronics, food, pillows and other needs to travel south and visit wounded members of the armed forces.

According to NCFFOWW chairman Terence Powderly, the visits have been taking place for 22 years, and bring Nassau County first responders together with armed forces veterans who are dealing with injuries, mental and physical, suffered while in service. The organization is described on its website as, "a non-profit organization that supports active and retired service members, with special focus on our wounded troops," and is not connected to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Powderly said he expects about three dozen firefighters to make the trip south, filling two 12-foot box trucks with donations from departments across the county to distribute at army bases and at medical centers.

“We have two convoys. The first will be leaving tomorrow morning [Dec. 3] very early…On Thursday, they will be meeting with the soldier Recovery unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina,” Powderly said. “On Friday, there will be in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina base to meet with the wounded Warrior Battalion down there. The following week, on Friday, the 12th, we will be driving down to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center to meet with troops across the board, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, whoever is in Walter Reed Medical Center at the time. And then we also will be meeting with the wounded warrior Battalion at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.”

Coordinating that visit to Fort Belvoir will be Lynne Donnelly, former president of the ladies’ auxiliary at the Lynbrook Fire Department. For Donnelly, the chance to meet wounded service members and their families is a chance to help families that remind her of her own.

“We were the kids that had the commissary sneakers or jeans, when we went to school, when everybody else was wearing Lee’s or Levi's, you know?” Donnelly said. “So that's something that my sister and I always think about when we go down there, make sure those kids have a present that they can open up on Christmas.”

To Powderly, the giving at this time of year is a chance to support troops that he said, “keep us all safe and secure.”

“We do it out of love and respect for our troops, who are either wounded, injured, or sick. This time of year, I think, is very important for us to show our love and respect for them,” Powderly said. “When we go down there, we always run into officers — from generals and admirals on down, and non-commissioned officers — and they always tell us, ‘you'll never know how much good you're doing by coming down here to visit our troops and their families.’”

Powderly said NCFFOWW expects to see about 100 soldiers at Fort Bragg, 150 marines and their families at Camp Lejeune, 150 people at Walter Reed and 125 at Fort Belvoir. While the box trucks will be loaded with iPads, clothing and food, Donnelly said the expansive list of donations helps meet a broad range of service members’ needs.

“The stories that you hear are heartbreaking, and it actually makes all of us appreciate what we have, more than anything,” Donnelly said. “I just spoke to a woman that I'm gonna see next week, who told us that her children would not have had a Christmas, if it wasn't for us. So we bring down food, we fill up their food pantry because the USO is right there...We also do ‘dress for success,’ so we bring down gently used suits for men and women, because, if they are transitioning out of the military or if they are looking for a civilian post with the military, a lot of them do not have civilian clothes. So they go on interviews in their fatigues or their dress blues, which is not, unfortunately, what some employers are looking for. So we started doing a clothing drive as well, and there's a tailor that actually comes and helps them out, does fittings and everything for them. So, they have the means to go and be dressed appropriately for interviews. The laptops, the iPads that we bring down for service members actually help them apply for positions if they're transitioning out.”

When asked why she remained involved with these donations, Donnelly, the trip coordinator for the NCFFOWW trip to Fort Belvoir, referenced a vocation passed down from her father.

“I am the daughter of a chief petty officer,” Donnelly said. “The one thing that my dad taught me and my siblings is, ‘the military put a roof over your head and food on the table, and if you ever have an opportunity to give back, you do it.’”