SALUTE TO RESCUE DOGS
Actor Paul Newman honored America’s search and rescue
heroes during Backer’s Spring Pet Industry Trade Show
by making a contribution to the Bear Search and Rescue Foundation,
the largest non-governmental supporter of search and rescue
teams in the country.
Newman, an ardent supporter of animal-related organizations
through Newman’s Own Organics (Aptos, Calif.), has become
an entrepreneurial folk hero for giving away all of his after-tax
profits to educational and charitable organizations.
”Having known several people lost in the World Trade
Center terrorist attack, I was very sympathetic to the Bear
Search and Rescue Foundation cause, and I therefore designated
the Paul Newman charity money to Scott’s foundation
in 2004 and again this year,” said Dennis J. Farrell,
director of business development for Newman’s Own Organics.
According to Shields, many rescuers pay all their expenses
out of their own pockets. “Just the care and training
for one search and rescue dog can cost upwards of $6,000 to
$10,000 a year. One goal of the foundation is to lessen the
financial burden of these brave men and women through funding
equipment, training, and transportation to emergencies. It’s
through the generosity of organizations like Newman’s
Own Organics that we can better prepare rescuers and ultimately
save lives,” he said.
The Bear Search and Rescue Foundation was established in
memory of America’s most decorated search and rescue
dog. Bear, along with Shields, led the first rescue teams
at Ground Zero after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks
in New York. Bear was credited with finding the most victims,
including Chief Peter Ganci of the New York Fire Department.
Bear was wounded at Ground Zero and died one year later of
cancer. He was buried as a fireman during a memorial service
at the USS Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York Harbor.
Ironically, Shields once had a business in the same Westport,
Conn., building where Paul Newman had his headquarters. Bear
often enjoyed pats on the head from members of the Newman
family. “To think that Bear would grow up to accomplish
great things and that Newman’s Own would help the foundation
is what I call serendipity,” Shields said.
For more information about the Search and Rescue Foundation,
visit www.bearsearchandrescue.org
[June 2005 PET AGE]
|
