Check your pension statements for Catastrophic Insurance
Pension Deductions-
It has come to the UFOA’s attention that pension deductions for catastrophic insurance premiums to Mercer may not have taken effect after a member retired or may have stopped since a member’s pension was reclassified. All retired members are urged to review their quarterly pension statement to verify that catastrophic insurance premiums are being deducted. The pension deduction code for catastrophic insurance premiums on the pension statement is CHIP MISC. If premium payments are not being deducted from your pension, you should contact Mercer immediately at 1-800-503-9230, option 2 and make alternate payment arrangements to bring their account up to date. You may also request that Mercer resume the premium deductions through monthly pension deductions. The UFOA does not process pension deductions or catastrophic insurance premium payments to Mercer.
Please consider helping our brother, Lt. Chris Ryan of Engine 89.
His oldest daughter, Emma, will be 8 in October and has a very rare illness called Ogden Syndrome. Emma is confined to a wheelchair and is unable to care for herself in any way. She is mentally and physically like an infant and will be for her entire life. A few years ago, the family started a GoFundMe to help with the cost of equipment and home modifications for Emma's care. Once the page was promoted, they were lucky enough to buy Emma a wheelchair van in March 2018. The page has lost momentum with the fundraiser when he was diagnosed with throat cancer in May of 2018. He was lucky enough to beat his cancer and was promoted in September of 2019. Once Covid hit, it delayed the promotion of the page once again. In the time that has gone by, Emma has gotten very big and the Ryan family is at the point that they have to make their house completely wheelchair accessible. They are putting an extension on the house specifically for Emma. They have construction plans and a contractor and are starting work once the town gives its blessing in the coming months. The costs are tremendous, so we are asking for another promotion of her fundraiser.
If you are able, www.gofundme.com/van4emma (the family insists that no one who already donated make another donation).
Thank you for your consideration.
UFOA Executive Board
THE THOMAS R. ELSASSER FUND Many have heard of The Elsasser Fund, but not many know how it started or who Thomas Elsasser was, so I will give you a little background. Tommy Elsasser was one of us. He was an ordinary guy, who did some extraordinary things. Tommy was a NYC Firefighter, who worked at Ladder 104 in Brooklyn in the 1980’s. And like most of us back then, he worked a “side job” to support his family. Tom was a good athlete and competed in many sports, but softball was his love. He was a member of the FDNY all-star team, that travelled around the country competing against many police and fire teams. With all this going on, Tommy still managed to organize an Annual Citywide Softball Tournament, with the express purpose of raising money for the FDNY Widows and Children’s Fund. This Tournament continues today in his honor. In 1989, Tommy Elsasser passed away from a non-job-related illness. His loss devastated his colleagues and friends. They wanted to keep his memory alive and approached me as UFA Brooklyn Trustee, to start a fund in his memory. In 1992, after much discussion, The Thomas R. Elsasser Fund was started. So, what is The Thomas Elsasser Fund? The Elsasser Fund is NOT an FDNY sponsored fund. It is NOT run by the Fire Unions. It is a fund run by Firefighters and Fire Officers with the express purpose of taking care of the families of our active members, who die Non-Line-of Duty. Line of duty families, receive an FDNY pension and other benefits, upon the death of their loved one, the non-line-ofduty families do not. That creates a big financial burden on each NLOD families. The Silver Shield Foundation and the Police and Fire Line of Duty Widows and Children’s Fund, who do great work for our families, provide Scholarships for the children of our fallen heroes, as well as annual financial support to all line of duty families, through contributions from Wall Street and other corporate benefactors. The non-line-of duty families are not eligible for these benefits. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, we were losing an average of 6 firefighters/fire officers a year, due to non-line-of duty causes. Some died from illnesses not covered as line of duty, some died from car accidents, some died as victims of violence in the City and some died of suicide. The one thing they all had in common, was that their families lost a loved one and their lives were turned upside down. For these reasons we decided to start the Thomas R. Elsasser Fund. In 1992, with a $5,000 donation from the FDNY Hockey Team and some other donations from firefighters and friends, we gave out $1,000 in “Scholarships”, to the children of the firefighters who died that year, Non-line-of-duty. That was our humble beginning. As word travelled throughout the job, other sports teams offered annual support for our fund as well as the Annual Al Ronaldson Citywide Golf Tournament which raised quite a bit of money for us, so that our fund could grow. And, in 1994, we officially incorporated and became a 501-C-3 Tax exempt Charitable Fund and we were on our way. Through the generosity of our members and other benefactors, we were able to expand our program so we could give additional support to these families. Besides our Annual Holiday remembrance checks to the spouse and the children, The Elsasser Fund also offers a catastrophic Insurance Policy and an Aflac Cancer Insurance policy to each of the families at no cost. Finally, our fund also addresses other financial needs that our families may experience during the year by offering to assist them with home repairs, medical and dental bills or other bills creating a burden on their families, up to $5,000 with Board approval. Speaking of The Elsasser Board, the Board is made up of a Chairman (Kevin Gallagher); an Honorary Co-Chair from both the UFA and the UFOA Boards; representatives from many of our FDNY sports programs; our Legal Advisor, Michael Block; our accountant/ actuary, Sheila Pettit; our Treasurer (Bob Straub); as well as other UFA/UFOA Board members and friends. For the last 28 years each of these individuals have given countless hours without pay, to assure that this fund is running properly. I can’t thank them enough for their efforts. We have recently added Stan Reimer, from the Honor Emergency Fund, to serve as an additional resource for financial assistance for our families and another long-time friend and Board member Gerard Snell who provides counselling services, free of charge to our families as needed.
As you can see, the Elsasser Fund has been providing much needed assistance to our NLOD families for a long time. Nearly ten million dollars of support has been given to our families over the last 28 years. This would have never been accomplished without the continued efforts of our Fire Department family and friends. We also had a special group of benefactors who have made major contributions throughout the years. One private fund, donated nearly $800,000 to the Elsasser Fund, when they heard of what we did and who we supported. One firefighter that asked for anonymity, left his entire Estate (nearly $600,000) to the Elsasser Fund upon his death because he believed in what we were doing and wanted to support our families. Without people like these, we could have never done all the additional programs, we have been able to provide for our families. But despite these very generous donations, the backbone of our fund are our friends and firefighter family. Without your continued donations, our fund would have to drastically cut back on our support to our families. 2020 was a very difficult year for the Elsasser Fund. With COVID dominating our lives, many of our support groups, including our FDNY Sports teams, had to cancel their programs and could not make their generous contributions to our fund. Similarly, some of the private donations, that we receive annually, have been cut back due to the current economic environment. This leaves us with some very difficult decisions. We currently have 83 families and 44 children under the age of 24 actively participating in our fund. Each spouse receives $2,500 and each child receives $1,000 during the holiday season. We still managed to provide nearly $300,000 of assistance to these families from our reserve fund this year. However, this will be unsustainable going forward without new funding. I would ask that you consider making a donation to our fund, so that we can continue to assist these families who need our support. Every contribution is tax exempt and every donation will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this rather long letter, but I wanted to cover all aspects of our Fund. In this way the word can get around to add awareness of exactly what we do and what
the Elsasser Fund is really all about.
Fraternally, Kevin Gallagher- Engine 280 (retired)
FDNY Thomas R. Elsasser Fund- Chairman
TO DONATE NOW:
Make your check payable to The Thomas R. Elsasser Fund
and send to The UFA 204 East 23rd St. NY, NY 10010,
Attention: Sheila Pettit
Donations are very much appreciated and are Tax Deductible.
~~~
The NYC Fire Museum receives numerous offers to donate artifacts from past FDNY members. Unfortunately, much of what is offered either does not have significant historic value – although it may have personal sentimental value to the owner – or is already represented by one or more of the same artifact already in the collection. One thing we do not accept are old company journals, unless they contain specific historic entries or are from the mid-1800’s,
or back issues of WNYF.
That said, we are seeking items that represent aspects of FDNY history or operations that we do not have in our collection. These include artifacts from Marine Division, Counterterrorism, EMS, Mask Services, Line Organizations, and discontinued units such as Superpumper, Canteen, Water Towers, Radiological Unit, MOS Ambulance, Community and News Service (CANS), FDNY Explorers, FDNY Auxiliary, etc. Helmets, helmet fronts, badges, documents,
etc. are of interest.
If you have anything you might be willing to donate, contact the Collection Managerby email at: curator@nycfiremuseum.orgor by phone (212) 691-1303 x17
WHAT'S ON THIS PAGE?
-OUR MEETINGS INFORMATIVE AND FUN!
-MEETING LOCATIONS
~Volunteers for the Fire Museum~
-Counseling Unit Breakfast Schedule~
AND
How to Join the
Retired Members Association -JUST GO TO THE HOME PAGE
We always bring in interesting and informative speakers to address you on the issues at hand. See above, Leroy McGinnis from the UFA at a meeting last year. This past year we have had others speak about wills and trusts, health care, pension issues, upcoming events etc. Jimmy Hayhurst asks all to contribute to Building Homes for Heroes and the response is always positive for our disabled war vets.
See above, Jim Hayhurst addressing a packed house at our meeting in New Hyde Park at the Elk's Club; 901 Lakeville Road. Our other location is in Brooklyn at the K of C Hall; 3051 Nostrand Ave [corner of Quentin Road and Nostrand Ave] We begin at 8pm and enjoy food and beverages but most of all we enjoy hanging out with friends. Make it a point to get to one
of our meetings,
we'd love to have you!
BECOME A VOLUNTEER AT THE FIRE MUSEUM
278 SPRING ST. NYC, NY
One day a week for a few hours plus ample parking.
Helps keep our great history alive to school children
Contact: Sarah Judd, Executive Director (212) 691-1303 est. 15
or Jim Vreeland, Volunteer (718) 833-6410
~
COUNSELING UNIT
STAY CONNECTED
BREAKFAST SCHEDULE
~Fort Totten CSU:
Fort Totten, Bldg 413B Bayside, NY 11361 (718) 352-2140 meets the 3rd Friday of every month. Meetings begin at 10:00am
~Deer Park Firehouse
94 Lake Ave. Deer Park, NY 11729 (631) 667-3500
meets 2nd Tuesday of every month. Meetings begin at 9:00am
~
~Staten Island: 1688 Victory Blvd Suite 101 Staten Is., NY (718) 815-4111 Meets the last Tuesday of every month , the location for the breakfast is Jimmy Max Restaurant 280 Watchoque Road
~Middletown CSU: 2279 Goshen Tpke. (845) 695-1029.
Meets the 2nd Tuesday of every month Meetings begin at 9:00am For further information: Contact Greg Smith at (212) 570-1693 ext-317
~
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