Hero to Hero Visits Fairfax County

Liz and her road crew are out on a politics-free, morale-boosting mission: A 6-week round-the-country trip (and over into Canada), collecting t-shirts from police, firefighters and other first responders and sending them to troops deployed overseas. (See their Web site, HerotoHero.us.)

Liz has been doing this since 2003; I first became aware of her last year, when I highlighted her blog as one of my July 4th Editor's Picks. (She uses her Journal to post photos and a travel diary of the trip.)

Now, Liz and her road crew (Kelly and Kathy) are about halfway through their trip now -- they start out from Tacoma, Washington, and takes the northern route east:

Route map on the back of the van.

I managed to catch up with her in Tyson's Corner, Virginia, where she stopped by Fire Station 29 of the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department.

You can see all 59 photos I took in the embedded album above. A few that might need explaining:

There are two mascots: a Chief, who collects pins and badges:

The Chief

And there's a Rookie, who as stunt bear, gets landed on by helicopters, run up flagpoles, impaled by extraction tools, launched from air cannons and other fun things:

The plastic wrap doesn't offer much protection to the Rookie.

Funny glasses also make an appearance:

Anything to boost troop morale.

Followed by a little "mean-mugging" for the camera:

Also, a "probi" (or probationary firefighter), gets to donate the shirt off his back:

Shirt-faced (that's what it says). He may be a rookie firefighter, but he's also a Marine.

The H2H Road Crew:

Kelly, Liz and Kathy.

So, thanks to Liz and crew for doing this. Also thanks to the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department and Station 29 for their hospitality. Check out the HeroToHero Journal for more info and to follow along their Journey. (There was also a local news crew -- I will have to keep checking their site to see if they aired a story.)

Safe travels to Kelly, Liz and Kathy on the rest of your travels:

Thanks -- Joe

Tags: hero to hero, hero2hero, fairfax county fire and rescue, station 29, photos, dc local

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This entry has 9 comments: (Add your own)

#9 Comment from princesssaurora
6/5/07 7:51 AM | Permalink

Thanks for the story Joe... very inspirational!

be well,
Dawn
http://journals.aol.com/princesssaurora/CarpeDiem/
#8 Comment from l2068commman
6/5/07 5:37 AM | Permalink

I'm glad you caught up to Liz, Kathy and Kelly. Thanks for the photos. Last year, I was able to accompany them throughout their day, but this years visit just so happened to occur on my shift day on. Dang it!

Anyway, thanks for your hard word in keeping the H2H journals working smoothly...

Cheers,
Joel Kobersteen
Communications Director
Fairfax County Professional Fire Fighters & Paramedics
IAFF Local 2068
#7 Comment from journalseditor Entry Author
6/4/07 7:00 PM | Permalink

Manda -- I took a look at your Journal, and while it's not drawing in properly in the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser (including the browser that's part of the AOL software), I can assure you that everything is still there -- it's just that the page isn't loading properly. So don't panic.

I don't know why your Journal isn't rendering properly. It appears to be "waiting" for something. There may be something in your most recent entry that's causing it problems -- possibly the embedded album.

I can ask the team to look at it, but it will probably be faster if you do this:

1. Download and install another Web browser, like Netscape (http://browser.netscape.com/ns8/) or Firefox (http://www.getfirefox.com)
2. Sign in using your screen name and password (if you need more detail, see my instructions here: http://journals.aol.com/journalseditor/magicsmoke/entries/844 )
3. Using the other browser, you should be able to see your Journal normally. Then:
* Edit your June 4 entry (the one titled "Love Love Love").
* Delete the embedded album ("Remove All Pictures") in that entry.
* Save your changes.
* After this, if you can see your Journal in the AOL software, you can then try re-adding your picture album.
* If that doesn't work, I suggest copying and pasting the text of your 6/4 entry, pasting it into a plain text editor (like Notepad), then deleting that entry and recreate it by pasting the plain text you copied into a new entry.

It looks like a bit of code in your entry got unglued somewhere and is messing up how your Journal displays. Not sure how it would have happened.

Please give the above a try and let me know if it works.

Thanks -- Joe (posted & mailed)
#6 Comment from iiimagicxx
6/4/07 6:35 PM | Permalink

Thank you Joe. It just goes back to the main aol page, or tell us it was unsuccessful.
I am so basic with my technical knowledge... I'd love to read on how I can go into my cache browser and clean it. Perhaps it will work.
Valerie
#5 Comment from manda2177
6/4/07 6:33 PM | Permalink

JJJJJOOOOOOOOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
PLEASE HELP!
My journal is blank. Its all gone. I dont know anything about computers. What should I do????????
PLEASE help me!
Amanda
http://journals.aol.com/manda2177/i-am-mommy/#Entry1618

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Hero to Hero Visits Fairfax County