Florida Federation of Italian American
Clubs, Inc.'s
Person of the Year for 2002
Vincent Tummino
President of Columbia Association NYC Fire Dept.
A half hour slide presentation with pictures never before
seen on T.V. or in the newspaper.
FIRE DEPARTMENT
It has been an honor and
privilege to serve with the greatest Fire Dept. in the world. September 11th has
only reconfirmed that. We are all a "Band of Brothers" for life.
On September 11th, I was at the Battalion office getting ready to go home, I had
just completed a 15 hour tour. At 8:48 AM I was watching the TV, and saw the
attack on the WTC. The phone started to ring like crazy. My fellow brothers in
the firehouse were getting their gear together and were leaving to get a ferry
to NYC. Due to the activity in my office, I missed the car pool, and left much
later, (this is what saved my life) I drove to Manhattan, hoping to find my
fellow firefighters who were injured by the collapse. I will never forget how
mad I was that we were attacked, and then upon arrival in Manhattan to find a
huge pile of what was the Twin Towers, and not finding anyone alive or for that
matter to find anyone at all, this was very confusing to me. With all my years
both on the Fire Dept. and in the Military, I was still not prepared to see what
had happened. I worked for the next 63 hours at various locations before I
finally went home to sleep for about 4 hours, and return to WTC. This went on
for the 1st month everyday working either in my firehouse or at WTC, or going to
a memorial service. By mid October, I finally got into a routine of what I was
going to do. I also was asked to do many things for the Fire Dept.
COLUMBIA ASSOCIATION
As a liaison of the Fire
Dept. with our friends in Italy, the most memorable events were the trip to
Messina, Sicily to accept the Colapesce award for peace and then to Rome for a
private audience with Pope John Paul II. I was also knighted for peace from the
International Center for Peace in Assisi, Italy. The members of the NYC Fire
Dept. are living truth of what heroes are all about. As we did many times before
we are always going into danger to save lives and property. No one else can say
that about an oath of office, and do its job 100%.
As President of the Columbia Association, I oversee the day to day operations of
its 3000 members of Italian American members. We promote family activities,
unity, patriotism, charity, and most of all our Italian Heritage. We award over
$10,000 dollars in scholarships each year. We give a gold medal along with a
$1000 cash award to a heroic firefighter each year.
SERVICE
32 Years of Service as Firefighter & Manager of Battalion Office
Knights of Columbus (4th Degree)
Retired from US Army Reserves (27 years)
Member of American Legion
Member of Advisory Council for Italian American Museum NYC
Italian
Always
