Emergency of Hunger food drive kicks off this weekend


POSTED 5:28 PM, NOVEMBER 13, 2014, BY SAMANTHA SCHOENFELD AND MIKE KRAFCIK, UPDATED AT 06:53PM, NOVEMBER 13, 2014 at Fox CT

Article and video appears on Fox CT

VERNON– Food drives are now kicking off for the holiday season, and this year there’s additional need for help in Connecticut cities and towns.

Many who oversee food drives in suburban towns and more affluent parts of the state say the need for food assistance is continuing to increase.

In Vernon Thursday afternoon, a kick-off ceremony was held for the sixth annual Emergency of Hunger Food Drive. Fire officials, police, EMS, hospital staff, Rotary and others are participating to help make a difference.

Over the last five seasons the drive has garnered 147,000 food and personal care items, 4,710 turkeys and more than $96,000 in cash, checks and gift cards.

Last year, fire, police and first responders personally helped to collect 25,000 food items and more than $10,000 in cash and gift cards for many suburban families in need.

Read the full article here…

Paralyzed Man Gets Surprise Lift To Son’s Graduation

Read the original Fox CT story here…

LOUISA MOLLER — Fox CT

A paralyzed Connecticut man was given a special gift Monday by a generous ambulance company. Frank Foster was transported from New Britain to Danbury by the Ambulance Service of Manchester to see his only son graduate from Bethel High School.

“None of us expected this. If it wasn’t for my friends at the ambulance company, it wouldn’t have happened,” Foster said.

Foster has spent most of his time in hospitals since a devastating incident a few years ago. He suffered from an aortic aneurism resulting in a spinal cord injury.

“I was in my living room and all the sudden, I dropped to the floor. Luckily my phone was next to me,” Foster said.

He had discussed his son Paul’s graduation with ASM employees but did not learn that the company was transporting him, free of charge, until a few months later.

“Surprise is an understatement,” Foster said. Read more from Fox 61 here…

ASM Responds: East Hartford Apartment Fire


EAST HARTFORD— Residents of an apartment on Ellington Road leapt from their windows into the waiting arms of firefighters to escape from a three-alarm blaze early Tuesday.

A dozen people, including three firefighters, were injured, officials said. Five people were hurt, one severely, when they jumped from their windows. Residents of 38 units have been sent to the North End Senior Center on Remington Road.  Read the Courant/Fox CT article here…

East Hartford Apartment Fire- Ambulance Service of Manchester

Photo Courtesy of Hartford Courant – Fox CT