Orlando FD Station 1, 2966 W Oak Ridge Rd

Stephen “Skip” Kerkhof, Assistant Fire Chief
Mike Stalling, Pres. “F.O.O.L.S”
Dawn Byram, Deveruex Florida Communications Director

Dawn Byrum was a woman I had met a few months earlier. I had donated a Limited Edition WTC poster to an art auction she was involved with, that benefited autistic children. I had contacted her to let her know I was coming to Orlando with the banner. She is excellent at networking, and made several key contacts for us in Orlando, and across America. She would later get us to meet with Jon Hansen (see Oklahoma City OK). Here in Orlando, she arranged for me to have a hotel room for the night, and would invite the people she new to come sign the banner.

In the morning, I went over to the FD, which amazingly was located right across the street, and was a very big department. It was a very friendly atmosphere, and they had been anticipating my arrival. The good word had obviously been spread via the other FD’s and news media. They made arrangements for me to display the banner here at the station, and also contacted the news teams to do a live broadcast, and invite people to come here to participate in the project together. It was a terrific turn out, and I was invited to join them for dinner. The hotel also was very supportive of the banner, and provided me a complimentary room for Saturday.

WKMG/TV6, Todd Jurkowski, Reporter and Scott Kurtz, News Photographer

TV CH 13 News, Rod Johnson, Anchor