It’ll be a night to hear of rescues, dangerous maneuvers and listen to live music to help raise money for Hawaii Fire Department personnel.
It’ll be a night to hear of rescues, dangerous maneuvers and listen to live music to help raise money for Hawaii Fire Department personnel.
The event is the 18th annual Daniel Robert Sayre Memorial Foundation award ceremony and dinner starting at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Fairmont Orchid Resort in Waikoloa.
The event will honor 14 fire department personnel “for meritorious service above and beyond the call of duty.”
The foundation was started by Dr. Frank Sayre and Laura Mallery-Sayre in honor of their son, Danny. He died while hiking in Pololu Valley in 1997 and it took 10 hours and risky piloting to recover his body. The couple raises money to help the Fire Department purchase equipment the county cannot afford.
The foundation has raised more than $2 million since it began. It has spent that money on training, equipment and supplies for departments around the island, including the purchase of two small watercraft for use at Hapuna and Punaluu beaches. Beyond the cost of the machines came a training program for everyone who might use one. They hope to get a unit at each lifeguard station, Laura Mallery-Sayre said.
A donation also led to the purchase of a public address system at both large beaches. Mallery-Sayre said the water safety officers have told her “innumerable lives have been saved” because they now can spread a safety message across the entire beach, instead of just around the lifeguard stations.
There also will be silent and live auctions, with proceeds going toward equipment ranging from personal gear bags to rescue boards.
Many of the foundation’s purchases are to replace aging equipment, she said. That includes several new automatic external defibrillators and rappelling harnesses.
The silent auction includes international trips, a cruise, coffee and more.
The honored personnel are:
Capts. Michael Andrade and Charles Spain; fire equipment operator David Mahon; fire rescue specialists Dustin Frechette, Riley Young, Lyle Tamaribuchi and Carle Pires; firefighters Yurik Resetnikov and Tay Soares; water safety officer Jason Nixon; fire medical specialist 2 Bertram Carvalho Jr.; fire equipment operator Donald Awa; fire battalion chief Michael Hayashida; and fire inspector Palani Kurashige.
For information, visit DanielSayreFoundation.net.