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Thursday,
05/31/2012
Comedy tour stopping to help West Metro
Clarke Reader
Nothing is funny about the loss of lives, including
emergency response personnel, because of the terrorist
attacks of 9/11. But one former firefighter is using humor
to memorialize New York City firefighters who lost their
lives while responding to the attacks. And he’s also helping
fire departments across the country raise money.
The Laughter Saves Lives comedy tour will come to Lakewood
to benefit the West Metro Fire Department, which will use
funds raised on a project to recreate the city’s first fire
station.
On Friday, June 8, at 7 and 9:30 p.m. Steve “Mudflap”
McGrew, Steve Alleva and J Jay Boyd will put on a comedy
show at the Lakewood Cultural Center, 470 S. Allison
Parkway, as part of the Laughter Saves Lives tour.
The tour is the brainchild of retired New York City
firefighter and stand-up comedian John Larrochia, who wanted
to come up with a way to raise money for local firefighters’
charities around the country and keep alive the memory of
the 19 firefighters from Larrochia’s firehouse who died.
“In honor of the lost firefighters, John puts on this tour,”
said Dean Wahl, president of the West Metro Fire Rescue
Foundation. “He comes out here and produces the show for us,
and we promote it. Ninety-three percent of the proceeds will
go to our foundation, and the other 7 percent go to John to
keep him doing shows.”
Wahl and Larrochia met when Larrochia was in the area
teaching about new haz-mat equipment, and the two got to
talking. It was then that the two men realized they had
something in common.
“After 9/11 our firehouse reached out to John’s Haz-Mat
Company 1, Squad 228 firehouse and helped the families out,”
Wahl said. “We have their firehouse name on our engine in
memory, but we had never met. When John put it together that
we were the ones that had been helping, he said he had to do
a show here.”
Through the West Metro’s family-support network, many of the
firefighter’s wives lent a helping hand to families in New
York City, assisting with support and organizing things, and
the station sent a bench made of Red Rocks flagstone to
Larrochia’s station.
Wahl said that having this event in Lakewood is a way for
the relationship between the two stations to come full
circle.
“We’re helping John in fullfilling his mission of
remembering his brothers, and we have a chance to use his
platform to raise awareness about our efforts,” he said.
For more information on the event, call 303-987-7845 or go
to www.laughtersaveslives.org. |
