5th Annual Ride for the Burn Camp, Oconomowoc, Wisconsin
One of my Riders Edge Instructors is a retired Racine Firefighter. Tom Mills is a hero in every sense of the word.
I had the pleasure of meeting Tom at my RE courses, after hearing the tale my DH brought home from his RE experiences, 3 weeks earlier.
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| Tom Mills, upper right |
He told me a tale of an event a few years back in his career, when he arrived at the scene of a burning building. There were two children involved, a boy and his sister. He rescued the boy, and was honored for his heroism in the line of duty. When he retired from the Racine Fire Fighters, he was given a plaque by Harley-Davidson to commemorate his services. They commissioned an artist to paint his likeness on the fairing of his bike, a picture of a firefighter, carrying out a young boy from the flames that nearly took his life.
He retired with honors, never thinking he'd come face-to-face with that part of his career again. Until years later.
Tom is a veteran Harley rider, over 50 years under his belt. He had attended hundreds of events, and one in particular won honorable mention.
He was to appear at a Burn Camp in upper WI, to give motorcycle rides to burn victims, as part of a charity event. When he rode up to the camp, he was approached by a young man. The youth and his mother approached Tom, and the boy asked him, "Are you Tom?", to which Tom replied "Yes!" The boy asked him, " do you live at ***** Dr. in Racine?" Puzzled, Tom replied, "why, yes, but how do you know that?"
The boy said, "You probably don't remember me, but I'm the boy you carried out of the fire, the one who's picture is painted on your bike."
After Mike completed his Riders Edge course, he gifted an antique firefighter's axe to Tom. We had no idea how old it was, or where it came from, only that it was given to Mike's dad a few years earlier, where it sat in the corner by the back door of our garage. Tom accepted the axe, and later told me how he had researched the axe's origins and maker's marks. He found out it came from a fire station on Halstead Ave. in Chicago, and was one that would have been attached to the inside of the cab of a fire truck, behind the Captain's seat. He even knew what company made the screws that held the axe head to the handle.
He proudly told us that he hung it in a room in his house that housed many memorabilia, and we were so happy to know it found it's home, exactly where it belonged, in the home of a TRUE HERO~
We are honored to have crossed paths with this great fellow, and hope to see him again soon, when we reunite with our new Family at Kutter Harley-Davidson, for next Spring's events.
I finished another crochet bookmark today. I did this one in variegated purples, it just reminded me of petunia colors. This one is very pretty, and was easy-peasy. I especially like it's Victoriana old-style charm. There will be many more variations made from this pattern, I'm sure!
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Petunia Bookmark by Alyce Cakalic from Leisure Arts #75069, Reader's Choice Bookmarks |
