Store donates to police, fire
By JILL BODACH
Hour Staff Writer
NORWALK -- The Norwalk police and fire departments were among the thousands of departments, service organizations and other groups to receive funding from Wal-Mart this year.
The fire department received $1,000 and the police department $750 from the Connecticut Avenue Wal-Mart store. With a lack of federal funding to the departments, donations like this are much appreciated, Police Chief Harry Rilling and Fire Marshal Glenn Iannaccone said.
"Wal-Mart has been a very good neighbor to us," Iannaccone said. "They have us money when they opened both of their stores in Norwalk. They are good to have in the city." Rilling said the police department is also grateful for their support.
"They've been very supportive of us and donated funds in the past as well," Rilling said.
The donations are a part of Wal-Mart's annual Safe Neighborhood Heroes grant. The grant helps local public safety agencies fund purchase bulletproof vests, thermal imaging cameras, the Jaws-of-Life rescue tool, smoke detectors for residences, and materials for Neighborhood Watch programs or develop children's fire safety education programs.
Iannaccone is going to use the funding to put him one step closer towards matching a grant put forth earlier this year by FEMA.
"FEMA gave us a $19,000 and we had to come up with $8,000 in order to receive FEMA's funding," Iannaconne said. "The money is going to allow us to buy smoke alarms for residents and launch our Sparky the Fire Dog program for children as well as utilize our smoke trailer. This puts us closer although we still need $3,000." The police will use the money to support the youth outreach program, whether by purchasing educational materials or helping offset the costs of Community Services Academy. "There are a variety of ways we can use this money and we are still deciding what exactly we'll use it for, but it will definitely be used for youth outreach," Rilling said.The Hour
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