Quote

As the member of a firefighter family myself, supporting the widowed families of rescue workers is an important, personal cause of mine.

Firefighters go where they're needed, sometimes ignoring the dangers even when no one is inside a burning building to be saved.

My cousin Jerry Lucey and five other firefighters died in a warehouse fire in Worcester, Mass. - my hometown - right in the middle of our old neighborhood downtown when a homeless couple started a fire to keep warm and the entire building went up. My cousin died trying to save homeless people who had already left the building.

Through the years you, the Delaware State family and your predecessors, have faced many challenges. You worked through them with fierce determination and good will, and you have made great progress.

Once you have a firefighter in your family, your family and the families from his crew become one big extended family.

Family jokes, though rightly cursed by strangers, are the bond that keeps most families alive.

I never made a daring rescue, which is the story people want to hear. I did go to my share of fires.

Getting to where Delaware State is today was a challenge my friends - a challenge proudly met by the people of this community and the Delaware State family.

Family are the people that can hurt you the most.

The men and women who make up a plane's crew put their lives in jeopardy each time they fly. It's our job as much as anyone's to make sure we make it as safe as possible up there for them.