A Holiday Dinner Rescue for Greenwich Firefighters

It’s all about tradition and helping Greenwich residents and the widows of Greenwich firefighters.

As they have since 1973, a band of members of the Greenwich Professional Firefighters Local 1042 made their appointed holiday rounds the Monday morning before Thanksgiving, delivering dinners to the widows and local residents who might not have the fixings for a holiday dinner.

“It started in 1973 with a couple guys who collected donations (from co-workers) and went out and bought dinner for a couple of widows,” said Firefighter Matt Romeo. Since then as the need grew not only among the department’s widows but in the community as well, Local 1042 stepped up to the plate and took over coordinating the purchase of all of the holiday fixings and delivering them as well.

This year, in addition to six firefighter widows, dinners were delivered to six families each, in the Armstrong Court and Wilbur Peck public housing complexes. The families in need were recommended to the union by the Greenwich Department of Social Services.

On Monday morning, Romeo and fellow firefighters Dan Byrne, John Polman, Mike Zaranelli and Rich Alves walked through the Armstrong Court complex on Hamilton Avenue, making their deliveries.

“Some are repeat customers or unfortunately new widows. They’re happy to receive it,” said Alves, who’s Local 1042’s vice president. “I’d be happy to receive this,” said Alves as he carried one of the dinner boxes. Alves said one widow declined the box. “She’s having dinner with her daughter and she said, ‘Give it someone else who can use it.’ “

Each of the holiday dinner boxes contained a turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet and regular potatoes, peas, corn, nuts, a half-gallon of milk, a pound of butter, dinner rolls, and, of course, pie and coffee. The holiday dinner program cost about $1,000.

“They worked with Stop & Shop. They do a nice job of packaging it all together for us,” added Deputy Chief Keith Millette.

Photo: Greenwich Firefighters deliver Thanksgiving dinner to residents of Armstrong Court in Greenwich on Nov. 24, 2014. Credit: Barbara Heins.

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