Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're listening to Hudson Valley this morning with Ed Kawalski.
I am pleased to welcome to the WKIP microphones Frank Siller,
the CEO and founder of Tunnels to Towers, an organization
that was founded after Frank's younger brother, Stephen, was a
fireman who tragically lost his life on September eleventh. And
(00:20):
what to Frank and what Tunnel to Towers has done
to honor Steven's memory and to continue doing all sorts
of amazing things is just we need to really hear
the story. And I'm very grateful for Frank to be
able to join us on WKIP. Frank, good morning, how
are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good morning Ed, and thank you for having me on.
It's an honor. I know your listeners great Americans that
love love, law first respond isn't on military. So it's
good to be on with you this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Frank, you know, I did not know until I just
in preparation for talking to you. I did not know
that your brother was the youngest of seven children born
to your parents. I did not know that at a
very young age he lost both his mom and his dad,
you know, leaving him pretty much to be raised by
his older, older siblings. He became a fireman, and as
(01:13):
everyone knows by watching your commercials, by watching all of
the press that you've gotten, Stephen was assigned to Brooklyn
Squad one. He had just finished his shift. He was
going to go golfing and he saw the news reports,
turned right back around, got to the Brooklyn Battery tunnel.
He couldn't get through. He geared up and ran through
the tunnel. He ran through the tunnel to get to
(01:34):
the trade center. Can you tell us a little bit
about Stephen and tell us a little bit about what
prompted you. How did the whole genesis of tunnels to
towers come about?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, well, just because of what you said. I mean,
Stephen was the youngest of seven, but he was much
younger than all of us. I was closest in age
with him. I was in the eighth grade going into
high school when he was born. My older brother Russ
was twenty four years old. Wow, when my brother Stephen
was born, and all the siblings in between. So he
(02:06):
was our little, our little miracle. My father was forty nine,
my mother was forty four and back and you know
in the nineteen sixties that was a bit of a
miracle for something like that to happen. So he became
the very core of our family. And you know, when
my father, you know, when my brother was eight years old,
(02:27):
my dad passed away, and a year and a half later,
my mom passed away. So you're right, we did raise him.
His oldest siblings raised him. And he was blessed that
he did have much older siblings and and we all
played a major part in his u in his upbringing.
Mostly lived with my brother Russ and Rock full Center
in Long Island, who was the oldest of the siblings.
(02:47):
So and then he made this run for Gloria on
nine to eleven. I can't grow up to be this
unbelievable human being. He wanted to serve. He knew all
about service. My parents were true Franciscans, to take care
of the poor and and and the hill and you know,
was always doing for others. And he taught that to
They taught that to all their children and and Stephen
(03:11):
took it to the ultimate sacrifice by giving up his
life on on on nine to eleven. And when we
found out what he did that he ran through that
tunnel with sixty pounds of gear on his back and
you know, found a way to get there because he
was on his way home to play goth my brother Russ,
my brother George, and myself and h but he made
a decision to uh, you know, he had a call
(03:33):
to duty and and that's exactly what he did. And
while saving others, he gave up his life. So therefore
we awe the Tunnel to Towers Foundation because he ran
through the tunnel to the Towers where he gave up
his life, you know, for others.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You know, and your website says something as very very heartfelt.
It said that because he grew up and I guess
because you guys were raised under the philosophy of Saint
Francis of ASSISI he took a lot of comfort in
the in the inspirational phase, while we have time, let
us do good.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, because that's how we lived his life. You know,
he knew there's no promise for tomorrow. He saw it
firsthand as a little child that people die, and he
realized the importance of every day and he lived, he
lived the way he died for others. He just was
just a really inspiring a human being and he has
(04:23):
inspired his oldest siblings to live out that phrase, that
model in life. While we have time, let us do good,
and we do it in honor of Stephen, But all
those who perished on nine to eleven, how about all
the men and women that perish every day for us?
Let it be our first responders or our service members
(04:44):
who give their lives. And we made a promise the Foundation.
It took us years to grow to what we decided
that what we were going to do. God put us
on a certain path. All we had to do was
kind of listen a little bit. It was very obvious
what we had to do. I'm not going to go
into all the signs that we got to do the
work that we do, but they were things that we
(05:06):
could not ignore. And if we say we're doing God's work,
we want to do his plan. And his plan is
for us to take care of all these great heroes,
not just this year, not just last year, and not
just next year, you know, forever. And the Foundation is
built to be here to take care every first respond
(05:26):
to America that goes out, it gives the kids a
kiss goodbye, and you don't come home. You leave a
young family behind. We're going to take care of their family,
going to make sure they have a mortgage free home.
And if you're catastrophically injured, same thing, We're going to
make sure that you have a mortgage free smart home
because you gave your body for your country or your community.
And last, but not least, that we're for a homeless
(05:47):
veteran program that we have. We made a promise in
the word I use is eradicate. We're going to eradicate
homelessness amongst our veterans. There is over fifty thousand homeless
veterans for the last two years, of ten thousand homeless
veterans we took off the street into permanent housing and
get them more to comprehensive services they need. So this
(06:08):
is a promise that we're making to America, you know,
to do good in the honor of that just Stephen,
but all these great heroes that pay the ultimate sacrifice
for us.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Frank, it is an amazing story. And I guess are
you are you surprised yourself in regards to how well
the organization has done and as it's continuing to grow.
I mean, did you ever anticipate being able to be
doing all of the things that you're doing across all
those different programs when you first founded the organization.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
No, not at all. It was just we just wanted
to honor our little brother, That's all we wanted to do.
It was just a very simple plan. We're going to
do small little scholarships for first respond to kids that
their dad died. Not nine to eleven related, but you know,
maybe nine to eleven illness related, yes, but you know,
not related any anywhere that you guide. We were going
(06:56):
to do the really small stipends, and we were doing
that for many years, and then the first ever quadruple
ampute to ever survived any more was sageant Brendan Morocco
from Staten Allen and I went down with a group
of great people from the foundation, and while I was
talking to him, I said, Brendan, can we can we
(07:18):
in the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, can we build you
a home? And Brendan said, Frank, I don't know. We
haven't gonna live. I don't you know, because you know
he's from State Allen, where I lived, where Stephen was born.
And I said in that instant, I said, you know what,
Brendan will build it wherever you want. And you know,
it's funny how in a moment's notice you really realized that,
(07:39):
you know, you don't put it where you want it,
you put it where they need it. And uh, you
know he might have wanted to stay down in Washington
because by Walter Reed, which was in you know, Washington
at the time, and all in PTESDA was you know,
because all the surgery I had over one hundred surgery
and ends up. And yeah, but he said, all right,
(08:00):
so you're gonna build it for me anywhere? I said,
just anywhere? And he goes anywhere. He said, yeah, Brendan, anywhere.
Like it was a bit of a bust, you know,
So he said, okay, even Hawaii. I said, yes, I said,
even Hawaii, if you want to Hawai, We're building in Hawaii.
But he can't. He ended up coming back to State
aland we built the first home. We delivered it on
(08:20):
June eleventh, twenty eleven, so it was almost a ten
year anniversary. So those first ten years we were doing
beautiful things, taking care of first respond to kids, you know,
taking care of you know, burn victims, you know, with
the Bird Center and different things like that. But we
you know, we weren't doing anything like we're doing now.
But once we built that house, and we start to
build that house, I met two other quadruple amputees, and
(08:44):
I said, if we're building for Brendan, we got to
build for these guys. And then I was down Walterito
all the time, I met thirty eight triple amputees, thirty eight.
I said, so on the tenth anniversary of nine to eleven,
I made an announcement that we're going to build for
these thirty eight heroes, you know, these thirty eight heroes.
And I didn't know how we were going to raise
the money. I just knew that it was the right
(09:06):
thing to do. And you know what, it's funny that
when you put your trust in God and that you
know what you're doing is pure and good, that it
is going to happen. It is going to happen. And
because we did that and we showed that we can
take care of these great heroes, you know, we've been
able to do all this work. We're building hundreds of
(09:28):
houses a year, hundreds of houses a year, we're building
all over America and paying these hundreds of homes a
year for you know, first responders, and taking care of
goldy families that loved one die in the line to
do to leave young families behind and no, So to
answer your question is not a million years do we
think would be doing any of this kind of stuff.
(09:50):
But we had no choice because it was the right
thing to do. You met Brendan Morocco. He changed everything.
He changed everything because it was simple, Yes, the simple question,
can we build you a home? And now we've not
stopped all these years.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
We're speaking with Frank Siller, who is the CEO of
Tunnel the Tower Foundation. If you want to help this foundation,
and I don't know why you wouldn't, I'm imploring you
to go to T to T dot org. That's T
to T T the number two T dot org and
donate eleven dollars a month on your credit card. You know,
eleven dollars a month is a couple of cups of
(10:26):
coffee as all it is. And you're doing so much
to help Frank continue this mission, this incredible mission that
he's describing to us that is growing by leaps and bounds.
And now, Frank, you've taken on the homeless issue as well.
I do a lot up here with several organizations to
fight homelessness here in the Dutchess County area, and it
is a huge problem that's growing unfortunately. So thank god
(10:48):
that you've stepped in there and you've started to alleviate
some of the problem.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Anyway, Yes, and look, we have we could take care
of anybody. You're in the United States, the homeless, a veteran.
We're in the United States, like even though we're building,
we're buying hotels or across America. I'll just give you
some of the places that we've been in recently. We're
in Houston, Riverside, California, West La, Phoenix, Bradington, Florida, Mapleton, Georgia, Memphis, Tennessee, Denver,
(11:22):
North Charleston. We're in South Carolina and Buffalo. We're in Buffalo,
New York. We just bought a hotel in Buffalo, New York.
We already started work up there to take care of
building a homeless village there for these great heroes. And
another fifteen properties under consideration right now. And each one
(11:42):
of these, you know, these projects are any from fifteen
to twenty million dollars. That we buy a hotel, we
renovate them into apartments and then on the first floor
these an individual apartment something that you and I would
live in, because I'm not going to put any of
these great heroes and anything that I wouldn't live in myself.
But on the first floor we have all the comprehensive
services they need to assimilate back into society, like job training,
(12:05):
benefit assistance, education assistance, financial budgeting management because some of
them do have money and that come in they have
to have to take care of it. A legal advocacy,
medical care access, mental health support, which you know is everything.
What good to put a roof over the head, they're
not going to stay there, PTS, counseling, and addiction treatment.
So we put all this right there, right in this
(12:27):
village that we're building, you know, these these hotels and
the grounds around them, we build comfort homes, five hundred
square foot comfort homes for the older veterans that will
live there permanently, like a Vietnam veteran that was homeless.
So I'm so proud of this work that we're doing.
And that's right. You know you mentioned uncle Mike, I
(12:50):
think you mentioned eleven dollars a month. I come on,
come on, eleven dollars a month. We could do this.
We could do this, you know, fire Department says, many
hands make light work. There's no reason why everybody shouldn't
in America should make the same promise that we made
the Tunnel to Talis that we're going to take care
of these families. And you know that's what eleven dollars
a month does.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
And you know it's very important. And I've heard you
say this before when I've seen you on TV. You
know what, ninety five percent of every dollar that's donated
goes to the actual supporting the programs that you run.
There's a very low administrative overhead. A lot of not
for profits don't really do that well in terms of
the percentage of money that is actually donated and what
(13:32):
it goes to specific to the course to the cause
that they support. You guys are at ninety five percent
of every dollar that's donated support the programs that you
guys are running.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, well, listen, we've always held this foundation to the
highest standards and beast my brother's image and name steven
Silla Tunnel to Talis Foundation, and we've always been over
ninety percent of every dollar goes to our programs, which
we're very, very very proud of. Some years it's ninety
five point one, some years ninety six and some years
(14:03):
it's ninety two. Whatever it is, but it's always at
a high, high level. We one hundred percent. We're Radio
one hundred percent in transparency, and we're you know, and
financial fitness, we're one hundred percent. So we're very proud
of the work we're doing. And we want people to know.
There's two things people know. You make it eleven dollars donation,
(14:25):
you want to make sure that you know over ninety
percent of that goes to these great heroes. Right. It
does cost money to run a foundation, so you need
some money for administration cot and then you want to
know what it goes for. And you see it. It's
a home. It's a home, it's tangible. People see where
their donation is going, and I think it makes a difference.
(14:46):
And who were doing it for, you know, the greatest
of all Americans though, those who risk everything for you
and I to give us this country. That is, you know,
even with all our problems we have, and God willing
a lot of them is going to be taken care
of shortly, we were still the greatest country by far
and away that ever existed, not even close, not even
(15:08):
close so we want this country, we better take care
of these great heroes and their families. This is the
promise that we're making.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And some of the programs Frank Again, Smart Home Program,
Fallen First Responders Home Program, gold Star Family Home Program,
Homeless Veterans Program, the Tunnel to Towers, nine to eleven Institute,
the Footsteps to the Future Endowment. It goes on and
on and on in terms of the way you're actually
being out there to honor the memory of Stephen.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Well, yeah, so you mentioned the Institute. We have a
nine to eleven Institute where we have a curriculum for
kids from K through twelve. You could download the curriculum
right age appropriate for these great and learn about what
happened on nine to eleven. Part of our mission is
in the beginning, part was all about making sure we
(15:56):
never forget and we're still are true to that, and
that's why we have a mobile exhibit that goes all
over America that turns into eleven hundred square foot musine track.
The trailer that opens up, it's beautiful. We have firefighters
that we're down the air Ground zero that are theyre
telling the stories of that day and teaching these these
kids all about you know, what transpired on nine to
(16:20):
eleven and to make sure it doesn't happen again. So
you know, we're we we have a lot of things
going on and we have hundreds and hundreds of hundreds
of AMBASSTT is the will to go to any school
you could, anybody that's listening. I want somebody to talk
from down here, you know, from New York here that
will lived that day. You can request it and we're
(16:40):
going to send a police officer, a firefighter that has
an unbelievable story that they could tell. You know, once
again age appropriate all over America, and we do that.
So we're very proud of the work we're doing. But hey,
we do because we have tens and tens of thousands
of volunteers that have joined us on a mission, and
we have little only millions of people that donate to
(17:03):
us every year, and so we keep the promise of
taking care of these great families.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Again, that's T to T T. The number two T
dot org is how you can donate eleven dollars a
month on your credit card, which you won't even notice,
and it does so much for the foundation. You know, Frank,
I never had the honor of serving. My father was
a World War Two veteran, and my brother, who's both
of them no longer with us, was a Vietnam combat
(17:29):
veteran who died because of what he was exposed to.
But the thing that's amazing to me, Frank, it's got
to be to you as well, is how it grew,
not only through the millions who have gotten on board
here and thank god, you know, a soldier or a
firefighter or law enforcement an, any any first responder who
(17:51):
is willing to give their life for complete strangers is
just amazing to me. It's it's beyond how anybody could
be that selfless, you know what I mean, And it
just inspires me to do as much as I can
to try to raise money. I work for several foundations
up here, the Honor Flight, Hope for heroes, doing a
lot of the same kind of things, not on the
(18:12):
scale you're doing it, but you know, honoring our heroes
and to get it to grow the way it did,
obviously the help of the of the public with the
you know, the eleven dollars a month program, but you've
had some sponsors along the way that you probably want
to acknowledge. You have donated a lot of money to
help you.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, we thank god, we have quite a few of them.
You know. Home Depot was came on board when we
were building the smart homes right in the very beginning
and have been with us every step of the way.
And they also help us with the homeless veederment program
as well as well as general motives. I mean, GM
has been I mean they're raised millions for us every
(18:51):
single year. American Express, T Mobile, you know, Puppet Wand
and Mohawk give us flooring for each one of these houses.
Ap one is API is a company that does sprinkler
systems because in these smart homes, we put sprinkler systems
because they can't get out of the house right away
if they're in their bed. You know, we have to
have the you know, to protect these great catastrophically injured
(19:14):
service members and first responders. So we have, Yes, we
have all these great companies and individuals, very successful individuals
that that have joined us on our mission and I
can't I can't thank them enough. Look, we're building a
village in Florida, right outside right in Lando Lakes, Florida.
(19:37):
It's about one hundred houses a beautiful rec center for
these families of wall and first responders or gold Star
families or catastrophically injured service members. And we've finished the
first twenty five houses. I got twenty five going now,
and you know it's going to be filled with these
great families that have all through the same thing. So
(20:03):
you know, the work that we're doing is important, and
we're doing it all over the United States, and we're
bringing so many good people together. Look, part of our
mission is, like I said, never forget and to honor
the sacrifice. But we want to The Foundation just doesn't
want to hand over a house or more or a
mortgage payoff. We want them part of our family. And
(20:25):
we do that. We have hundreds and hundreds of runs
all across the country, and climbs all across the country,
and events all across the country, and of course the
big one in New York City always the last Sunday
in September where we retrace what my brother did you know,
run running through from downtown Brooklyn to from Brooklyn to
downtown New York, you know, through the tunnel. And we
(20:46):
bring all these families together and they're part of us.
They're part of us because when you all, I know
what they went through, you know, and it's part of
the healing process, and every one of them, every one
of them want to help the next one. It's incredible.
And how many of them started their own foundation in
love of in loeus of their loved one is incredible.
I love seeing these stories and being part of these stories.
(21:09):
It's inspiring. And you know, it doesn't end with each
story just begins.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Frank, if you could, how did your family realize what
Stephen did? How did that news come down to you
that he was the firefighter who geared up and ran
through the tunnel. How was that? How did you learn that?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Well? His So I didn't learn all at once exactly
what happened. I didn't know that day. We didn't know
that day. I will say that I was in my
house when the South Tower fell at nine point fifty
nine and I turned to my mother in law and
not knowing has Stephen gotten there or anything, and I said, Nancy,
(21:53):
I think I just lost my brother, and a little
more emotional than that, to say the least. I didn't
know it until like a day or two later, when
I heard a couple stories that they saw somebody saw Stephen.
A fire truck saw Stephen run through the tunnel. That
truck never got through the tunnel. He made it there
(22:15):
on foot before the fire truck did. And also his car.
His truck was parked right outside the mouth of the tunnel.
He was pulled over to the side. And it was
funny because the first year we did the tunnel, the
towers run, which was just the last Sunday in September
of two thousand and two, so almost on the one
year anniversary, there was a couple watching TV and they
(22:38):
saw us, you know, they saw that we were onning
my brother, and they saw his picture and they contacted
me afterwards and they said, we saw your brother come
to a screeching halt just before the mouth of the tunnel.
He jumped out of his truck and calmly put on
his gear and jogged into the tunnel. And when I
(22:59):
was told that, I mean, I was just overcome with emotion.
But I already knew that. Obviously it was a year later.
We already had to run, so we know we did it,
but just to hear that eyewitness saw him pull up
in the truck and said they said they often wondered
what happened to that man. And I've talked to these
people all the time. Matter of fact, I on our website.
(23:23):
They're one of the ones that did a video for
us about nine to eleven and they talked and they
talk about Steven. So a lot of a lot of
eyewitness people saw him do it and the truck right
outside of the tunnel. And of course, you know a
lot of people from Squad one were recovered, but Stephen
was never recovered. Like almost a thousand people that died
(23:44):
that day would never recovered.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Wow, we're speaking with Frank Siller, who is the CEO
of Tunnels the Towers Foundation. Again T the number two.
T dot org is the sweat website that you want
to go to. Why if you're listening to just go
to it right now and sign up to donate eleven
dollars a month because that eleven dollars a month is
going to do so much. Frank, I've got a lot.
I do a lot in the veteran community. I've got
(24:09):
veterans who are friends of mine that you've helped. I've
been in the houses where you've helped them. Some of
them are not even building houses. A couple of them.
You remodel them. They had a house that was kind
of not done very well when they first got in it,
and you went in and remodeled it and made it
so it was more livable for them, which is amazing too.
That's one of the things that we nobody mentions that
(24:29):
you do that as well. And I think the key
to this is what you've built here. I've done a
lot of charity work over my life, and a handout
is no good, but a hand up is a life
changing event. And these are a hand up because of
all these programs to a lot of these people. You
allow them to have a life, to.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Move forward, to get their lives back well.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
And a lot of them thought they were finished. They
weren't going to have a life, right, you know. You
always run that risk of suicide with a lot of
these heroes because they're so devastated with their injuries. But
giving them the hand up that you do allows them
to continue to live in many of them most of
them prosper.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, yes, and most of them do. And that's even
with the homeless veterans. They response rate when we get
them into these villages that were building is it's incredible.
These instructured people. You know, they just saw horrific things
and went through horrific things and for whatever the reason,
you know, they went down a tough path. You know,
they wouldn't leaven behind on the battlefield, so we shouldn't
(25:25):
leaven behind in the streets of America, that's for sure. Yeah,
and you know, and so yeah, a lot of them
do respond in such a beautiful positive way. Have struggles
come on. You know what it's like to live with
the missing couple lembs and traumatic brain injury or your
paraplegic quadripolitic all your life. I mean, they have their
hurdles every single day, and it's miraculous that they have
(25:48):
the courage that they have. But obviously these great heroes
have courage. They would never join the service and protected
us if it wasn't for the courage they already.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Had bid them so and Frank, often the physical injuries
are are devastating, but the mental injuries sometimes are even
harder to overcome. And I know you're doing a lot
with that as well, especially with the homeless, giving them
a dignity again and giving them a life back where
you know, some of them, as you said, they can't
unsee what they've been through and seen, and sometimes it's
(26:21):
too much. But at least what you're doing giving them
a little dignity back and giving them a home, it's
a step in that direction. And most of them are
able to recover enough to live the rest of their
lives at least right.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And we do offer mental health support for everybody, not
just the homeless vetterment. So everyone in our including the children,
including the children, we know that, you know, they need
a lot of people need to talk about it. You know,
they need to talk about it. And we offer that
to everybody who we've ever helped inside the tunnels of
(26:57):
Towers family. And it's quite a large family. I got
to tell you, it's quite a large family. We were
seven of us, but now we're thousands of us and.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
All over and Frank, your brother Steven had five children himself.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, and they're all doing unbelievable. His wife is strongest
a rock. They barry strong women. They have to. These
women know that the possibility that the husband's not going
to come home. And you know, I think about the
you know, holiday season. I think of officers sing in
California who on Christmas night went to his night tour.
(27:33):
And when I say when you give your kids a kiss,
cobuye and you don't come home, you know that's not
just you envision that, right, you're envision when I say that,
you know, service member room or first responda givesday kiss
and kiss good bye and they don't come home. Well,
on that Christmas Day he gave the last thing that
he did was kiss his little baby goodbye and he
didn't come home. And you know we remember getting on
(27:57):
Fox and talking about that. He was right on Christmas
Day and we raised the money in a very short
order and paid off his mortgage. But it all, you know,
the first responders all started with the detectives Loom Ramos,
well you remember them. It was just just a ten
year anniversary, was just at of service with both the widows.
(28:18):
The other day, December twentieth, twenty fourteen, detectives Loo and
Ramos were assassinated just because they were cops. And that's
how we started to pay off mortgages. So it wasn't
until December twenty twenty fourteen that we started to pay
off these mortgages for all these great heroes. And all right,
I heard about that they were worried about where they're
going to stay in their homes. And on Christmas Eve,
(28:40):
I was at their house. Tunnel the tower was we're
going to we're going to We're going to pay off
your mortgages. And I spoke to each one of the
widows and it made a tremendous difference and it changed
our foundation again. Yeah, we went from just building the
smart homes and now taking care of these great year
heroes all across America. So look, you know we're we're
on a certain path. The work is never done. Sad
(29:02):
to say. You know, we're going to always lose service members,
We're always going to lose first responders, and there's always
going to be some kind of homeless veteran problem and
you know we want to eradicate that, but the problem
will always be there. And the Tunnel, the Talis Foundation
wants to be the conduit to helping all these great people.
(29:23):
And you know we ask you to you join us
on a mission. So many people have I promise you
I'm not going to waste your money. I promise you
we're going to deliver to these great heroes as quickly
as possible. And I promise you that we won't forget
about that once we do take care of them that
they're going to They're not going to be forgotten. Their
loved ones are not going to be forgotten. They're going
to be part of our story, part of the Tunnels
(29:45):
of Talis story forever. So I can't thank you enough
for having me on.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Thank you, Frank, and listen. I just want to close.
I just want to close my saying in honor of
your brother to all of our listeners. While we have time,
let us good. Donate to this organization. Folks, donate to
this organization.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
T to T dot org. Do it right now. It's
very simple you can do. You can help Frank the
way he's asking for help by going to T to
t dot org and donating eleven dollars a month. You
can do it. It's not hard. If you have a
credit card, if you have a debit card, whatever, you
have eleven dollars a month, even if you're on a
tight budget. I understand that we're all struggling. Now give
(30:26):
up those couple of cups of coffee a week that's
taking it, and take that money and do some good
for not only our heroes, but the families who are
left behind. You know, Frank, I've seen some of these
widows who are just devastated and they find out that.
You know, every time any of these heroes leave for
a tour of duty, they may not come home, and
(30:47):
the wife lives with that. The spouse lives with that
every day. And now to find out that the mortgage
is paid, that's that's fantastic. It's got to be a relief.
It doesn't bring the hero back, but at least they
can move forward.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Indeed, Frank, thank you so much, sir. We'd love it
if it's okay with you, We'd love to keep in
touch with you, and anything that we can do to
help you in the Hudson Valley, you can count on it.
We've been talking to Frank Siller, CEO of Tunnels to Towers,
in honor of all of the great work that he does.
Folks in the Hudson Valley, please listen to us, Please
support this organization. Thank you, Frank, Thank you, God bless you.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Bet
You're listening to Hudson Valley this morning with Ed Kawalski.
I am pleased to welcome to the WKIP microphones Frank Siller,
the CEO and founder of Tunnels to Towers, an organization
that was founded after Frank's younger brother, Stephen, was a
fireman who tragically lost his life on September eleventh. And
(00:20):
what to Frank and what Tunnel to Towers has done
to honor Steven's memory and to continue doing all sorts
of amazing things is just we need to really hear
the story. And I'm very grateful for Frank to be
able to join us on WKIP. Frank, good morning, how
are you, sir?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good morning Ed, and thank you for having me on.
It's an honor. I know your listeners great Americans that
love love, law first respond isn't on military. So it's
good to be on with you this morning.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
Frank, you know, I did not know until I just
in preparation for talking to you. I did not know
that your brother was the youngest of seven children born
to your parents. I did not know that at a
very young age he lost both his mom and his dad,
you know, leaving him pretty much to be raised by
his older, older siblings. He became a fireman, and as
(01:13):
everyone knows by watching your commercials, by watching all of
the press that you've gotten, Stephen was assigned to Brooklyn
Squad one. He had just finished his shift. He was
going to go golfing and he saw the news reports,
turned right back around, got to the Brooklyn Battery tunnel.
He couldn't get through. He geared up and ran through
the tunnel. He ran through the tunnel to get to
(01:34):
the trade center. Can you tell us a little bit
about Stephen and tell us a little bit about what
prompted you. How did the whole genesis of tunnels to
towers come about?
Speaker 2 (01:43):
Well, well, just because of what you said. I mean,
Stephen was the youngest of seven, but he was much
younger than all of us. I was closest in age
with him. I was in the eighth grade going into
high school when he was born. My older brother Russ
was twenty four years old. Wow, when my brother Stephen
was born, and all the siblings in between. So he
(02:06):
was our little, our little miracle. My father was forty nine,
my mother was forty four and back and you know
in the nineteen sixties that was a bit of a
miracle for something like that to happen. So he became
the very core of our family. And you know, when
my father, you know, when my brother was eight years old,
(02:27):
my dad passed away, and a year and a half later,
my mom passed away. So you're right, we did raise him.
His oldest siblings raised him. And he was blessed that
he did have much older siblings and and we all
played a major part in his u in his upbringing.
Mostly lived with my brother Russ and Rock full Center
in Long Island, who was the oldest of the siblings.
(02:47):
So and then he made this run for Gloria on
nine to eleven. I can't grow up to be this
unbelievable human being. He wanted to serve. He knew all
about service. My parents were true Franciscans, to take care
of the poor and and and the hill and you know,
was always doing for others. And he taught that to
They taught that to all their children and and Stephen
(03:11):
took it to the ultimate sacrifice by giving up his
life on on on nine to eleven. And when we
found out what he did that he ran through that
tunnel with sixty pounds of gear on his back and
you know, found a way to get there because he
was on his way home to play goth my brother Russ,
my brother George, and myself and h but he made
a decision to uh, you know, he had a call
(03:33):
to duty and and that's exactly what he did. And
while saving others, he gave up his life. So therefore
we awe the Tunnel to Towers Foundation because he ran
through the tunnel to the Towers where he gave up
his life, you know, for others.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You know, and your website says something as very very heartfelt.
It said that because he grew up and I guess
because you guys were raised under the philosophy of Saint
Francis of ASSISI he took a lot of comfort in
the in the inspirational phase, while we have time, let
us do good.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, because that's how we lived his life. You know,
he knew there's no promise for tomorrow. He saw it
firsthand as a little child that people die, and he
realized the importance of every day and he lived, he
lived the way he died for others. He just was
just a really inspiring a human being and he has
(04:23):
inspired his oldest siblings to live out that phrase, that
model in life. While we have time, let us do good,
and we do it in honor of Stephen, But all
those who perished on nine to eleven, how about all
the men and women that perish every day for us?
Let it be our first responders or our service members
(04:44):
who give their lives. And we made a promise the Foundation.
It took us years to grow to what we decided
that what we were going to do. God put us
on a certain path. All we had to do was
kind of listen a little bit. It was very obvious
what we had to do. I'm not going to go
into all the signs that we got to do the
work that we do, but they were things that we
(05:06):
could not ignore. And if we say we're doing God's work,
we want to do his plan. And his plan is
for us to take care of all these great heroes,
not just this year, not just last year, and not
just next year, you know, forever. And the Foundation is
built to be here to take care every first respond
(05:26):
to America that goes out, it gives the kids a
kiss goodbye, and you don't come home. You leave a
young family behind. We're going to take care of their family,
going to make sure they have a mortgage free home.
And if you're catastrophically injured, same thing, We're going to
make sure that you have a mortgage free smart home
because you gave your body for your country or your community.
And last, but not least, that we're for a homeless
(05:47):
veteran program that we have. We made a promise in
the word I use is eradicate. We're going to eradicate
homelessness amongst our veterans. There is over fifty thousand homeless
veterans for the last two years, of ten thousand homeless
veterans we took off the street into permanent housing and
get them more to comprehensive services they need. So this
(06:08):
is a promise that we're making to America, you know,
to do good in the honor of that just Stephen,
but all these great heroes that pay the ultimate sacrifice
for us.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Frank, it is an amazing story. And I guess are
you are you surprised yourself in regards to how well
the organization has done and as it's continuing to grow.
I mean, did you ever anticipate being able to be
doing all of the things that you're doing across all
those different programs when you first founded the organization.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
No, not at all. It was just we just wanted
to honor our little brother, That's all we wanted to do.
It was just a very simple plan. We're going to
do small little scholarships for first respond to kids that
their dad died. Not nine to eleven related, but you know,
maybe nine to eleven illness related, yes, but you know,
not related any anywhere that you guide. We were going
(06:56):
to do the really small stipends, and we were doing
that for many years, and then the first ever quadruple
ampute to ever survived any more was sageant Brendan Morocco
from Staten Allen and I went down with a group
of great people from the foundation, and while I was
talking to him, I said, Brendan, can we can we
(07:18):
in the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, can we build you
a home? And Brendan said, Frank, I don't know. We
haven't gonna live. I don't you know, because you know
he's from State Allen, where I lived, where Stephen was born.
And I said in that instant, I said, you know what,
Brendan will build it wherever you want. And you know,
it's funny how in a moment's notice you really realized that,
(07:39):
you know, you don't put it where you want it,
you put it where they need it. And uh, you
know he might have wanted to stay down in Washington
because by Walter Reed, which was in you know, Washington
at the time, and all in PTESDA was you know,
because all the surgery I had over one hundred surgery
and ends up. And yeah, but he said, all right,
(08:00):
so you're gonna build it for me anywhere? I said,
just anywhere? And he goes anywhere. He said, yeah, Brendan, anywhere.
Like it was a bit of a bust, you know,
So he said, okay, even Hawaii. I said, yes, I said,
even Hawaii, if you want to Hawai, We're building in Hawaii.
But he can't. He ended up coming back to State
aland we built the first home. We delivered it on
(08:20):
June eleventh, twenty eleven, so it was almost a ten
year anniversary. So those first ten years we were doing
beautiful things, taking care of first respond to kids, you know,
taking care of you know, burn victims, you know, with
the Bird Center and different things like that. But we
you know, we weren't doing anything like we're doing now.
But once we built that house, and we start to
build that house, I met two other quadruple amputees, and
(08:44):
I said, if we're building for Brendan, we got to
build for these guys. And then I was down Walterito
all the time, I met thirty eight triple amputees, thirty eight.
I said, so on the tenth anniversary of nine to eleven,
I made an announcement that we're going to build for
these thirty eight heroes, you know, these thirty eight heroes.
And I didn't know how we were going to raise
the money. I just knew that it was the right
(09:06):
thing to do. And you know what, it's funny that
when you put your trust in God and that you
know what you're doing is pure and good, that it
is going to happen. It is going to happen. And
because we did that and we showed that we can
take care of these great heroes, you know, we've been
able to do all this work. We're building hundreds of
(09:28):
houses a year, hundreds of houses a year, we're building
all over America and paying these hundreds of homes a
year for you know, first responders, and taking care of
goldy families that loved one die in the line to
do to leave young families behind and no, So to
answer your question is not a million years do we
think would be doing any of this kind of stuff.
(09:50):
But we had no choice because it was the right
thing to do. You met Brendan Morocco. He changed everything.
He changed everything because it was simple, Yes, the simple question,
can we build you a home? And now we've not
stopped all these years.
Speaker 3 (10:06):
We're speaking with Frank Siller, who is the CEO of
Tunnel the Tower Foundation. If you want to help this foundation,
and I don't know why you wouldn't, I'm imploring you
to go to T to T dot org. That's T
to T T the number two T dot org and
donate eleven dollars a month on your credit card. You know,
eleven dollars a month is a couple of cups of
(10:26):
coffee as all it is. And you're doing so much
to help Frank continue this mission, this incredible mission that
he's describing to us that is growing by leaps and bounds.
And now, Frank, you've taken on the homeless issue as well.
I do a lot up here with several organizations to
fight homelessness here in the Dutchess County area, and it
is a huge problem that's growing unfortunately. So thank god
(10:48):
that you've stepped in there and you've started to alleviate
some of the problem.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Anyway, Yes, and look, we have we could take care
of anybody. You're in the United States, the homeless, a veteran.
We're in the United States, like even though we're building,
we're buying hotels or across America. I'll just give you
some of the places that we've been in recently. We're
in Houston, Riverside, California, West La, Phoenix, Bradington, Florida, Mapleton, Georgia, Memphis, Tennessee, Denver,
(11:22):
North Charleston. We're in South Carolina and Buffalo. We're in Buffalo,
New York. We just bought a hotel in Buffalo, New York.
We already started work up there to take care of
building a homeless village there for these great heroes. And
another fifteen properties under consideration right now. And each one
(11:42):
of these, you know, these projects are any from fifteen
to twenty million dollars. That we buy a hotel, we
renovate them into apartments and then on the first floor
these an individual apartment something that you and I would
live in, because I'm not going to put any of
these great heroes and anything that I wouldn't live in myself.
But on the first floor we have all the comprehensive
services they need to assimilate back into society, like job training,
(12:05):
benefit assistance, education assistance, financial budgeting management because some of
them do have money and that come in they have
to have to take care of it. A legal advocacy,
medical care access, mental health support, which you know is everything.
What good to put a roof over the head, they're
not going to stay there, PTS, counseling, and addiction treatment.
So we put all this right there, right in this
(12:27):
village that we're building, you know, these these hotels and
the grounds around them, we build comfort homes, five hundred
square foot comfort homes for the older veterans that will
live there permanently, like a Vietnam veteran that was homeless.
So I'm so proud of this work that we're doing.
And that's right. You know you mentioned uncle Mike, I
(12:50):
think you mentioned eleven dollars a month. I come on,
come on, eleven dollars a month. We could do this.
We could do this, you know, fire Department says, many
hands make light work. There's no reason why everybody shouldn't
in America should make the same promise that we made
the Tunnel to Talis that we're going to take care
of these families. And you know that's what eleven dollars
a month does.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
And you know it's very important. And I've heard you
say this before when I've seen you on TV. You
know what, ninety five percent of every dollar that's donated
goes to the actual supporting the programs that you run.
There's a very low administrative overhead. A lot of not
for profits don't really do that well in terms of
the percentage of money that is actually donated and what
(13:32):
it goes to specific to the course to the cause
that they support. You guys are at ninety five percent
of every dollar that's donated support the programs that you
guys are running.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, well, listen, we've always held this foundation to the
highest standards and beast my brother's image and name steven
Silla Tunnel to Talis Foundation, and we've always been over
ninety percent of every dollar goes to our programs, which
we're very, very very proud of. Some years it's ninety
five point one, some years ninety six and some years
(14:03):
it's ninety two. Whatever it is, but it's always at
a high, high level. We one hundred percent. We're Radio
one hundred percent in transparency, and we're you know, and
financial fitness, we're one hundred percent. So we're very proud
of the work we're doing. And we want people to know.
There's two things people know. You make it eleven dollars donation,
(14:25):
you want to make sure that you know over ninety
percent of that goes to these great heroes. Right. It
does cost money to run a foundation, so you need
some money for administration cot and then you want to
know what it goes for. And you see it. It's
a home. It's a home, it's tangible. People see where
their donation is going, and I think it makes a difference.
(14:46):
And who were doing it for, you know, the greatest
of all Americans though, those who risk everything for you
and I to give us this country. That is, you know,
even with all our problems we have, and God willing
a lot of them is going to be taken care
of shortly, we were still the greatest country by far
and away that ever existed, not even close, not even
(15:08):
close so we want this country, we better take care
of these great heroes and their families. This is the
promise that we're making.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
And some of the programs Frank Again, Smart Home Program,
Fallen First Responders Home Program, gold Star Family Home Program,
Homeless Veterans Program, the Tunnel to Towers, nine to eleven Institute,
the Footsteps to the Future Endowment. It goes on and
on and on in terms of the way you're actually
being out there to honor the memory of Stephen.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Well, yeah, so you mentioned the Institute. We have a
nine to eleven Institute where we have a curriculum for
kids from K through twelve. You could download the curriculum
right age appropriate for these great and learn about what
happened on nine to eleven. Part of our mission is
in the beginning, part was all about making sure we
(15:56):
never forget and we're still are true to that, and
that's why we have a mobile exhibit that goes all
over America that turns into eleven hundred square foot musine track.
The trailer that opens up, it's beautiful. We have firefighters
that we're down the air Ground zero that are theyre
telling the stories of that day and teaching these these
kids all about you know, what transpired on nine to
(16:20):
eleven and to make sure it doesn't happen again. So
you know, we're we we have a lot of things
going on and we have hundreds and hundreds of hundreds
of AMBASSTT is the will to go to any school
you could, anybody that's listening. I want somebody to talk
from down here, you know, from New York here that
will lived that day. You can request it and we're
(16:40):
going to send a police officer, a firefighter that has
an unbelievable story that they could tell. You know, once
again age appropriate all over America, and we do that.
So we're very proud of the work we're doing. But hey,
we do because we have tens and tens of thousands
of volunteers that have joined us on a mission, and
we have little only millions of people that donate to
(17:03):
us every year, and so we keep the promise of
taking care of these great families.
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Again, that's T to T T. The number two T
dot org is how you can donate eleven dollars a
month on your credit card, which you won't even notice,
and it does so much for the foundation. You know, Frank,
I never had the honor of serving. My father was
a World War Two veteran, and my brother, who's both
of them no longer with us, was a Vietnam combat
(17:29):
veteran who died because of what he was exposed to.
But the thing that's amazing to me, Frank, it's got
to be to you as well, is how it grew,
not only through the millions who have gotten on board
here and thank god, you know, a soldier or a
firefighter or law enforcement an, any any first responder who
(17:51):
is willing to give their life for complete strangers is
just amazing to me. It's it's beyond how anybody could
be that selfless, you know what I mean, And it
just inspires me to do as much as I can
to try to raise money. I work for several foundations
up here, the Honor Flight, Hope for heroes, doing a
lot of the same kind of things, not on the
(18:12):
scale you're doing it, but you know, honoring our heroes
and to get it to grow the way it did,
obviously the help of the of the public with the
you know, the eleven dollars a month program, but you've
had some sponsors along the way that you probably want
to acknowledge. You have donated a lot of money to
help you.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah, we thank god, we have quite a few of them.
You know. Home Depot was came on board when we
were building the smart homes right in the very beginning
and have been with us every step of the way.
And they also help us with the homeless veederment program
as well as well as general motives. I mean, GM
has been I mean they're raised millions for us every
(18:51):
single year. American Express, T Mobile, you know, Puppet Wand
and Mohawk give us flooring for each one of these houses.
Ap one is API is a company that does sprinkler
systems because in these smart homes, we put sprinkler systems
because they can't get out of the house right away
if they're in their bed. You know, we have to
have the you know, to protect these great catastrophically injured
(19:14):
service members and first responders. So we have, Yes, we
have all these great companies and individuals, very successful individuals
that that have joined us on our mission and I
can't I can't thank them enough. Look, we're building a
village in Florida, right outside right in Lando Lakes, Florida.
(19:37):
It's about one hundred houses a beautiful rec center for
these families of wall and first responders or gold Star
families or catastrophically injured service members. And we've finished the
first twenty five houses. I got twenty five going now,
and you know it's going to be filled with these
great families that have all through the same thing. So
(20:03):
you know, the work that we're doing is important, and
we're doing it all over the United States, and we're
bringing so many good people together. Look, part of our
mission is, like I said, never forget and to honor
the sacrifice. But we want to The Foundation just doesn't
want to hand over a house or more or a
mortgage payoff. We want them part of our family. And
(20:25):
we do that. We have hundreds and hundreds of runs
all across the country, and climbs all across the country,
and events all across the country, and of course the
big one in New York City always the last Sunday
in September where we retrace what my brother did you know,
run running through from downtown Brooklyn to from Brooklyn to
downtown New York, you know, through the tunnel. And we
(20:46):
bring all these families together and they're part of us.
They're part of us because when you all, I know
what they went through, you know, and it's part of
the healing process, and every one of them, every one
of them want to help the next one. It's incredible.
And how many of them started their own foundation in
love of in loeus of their loved one is incredible.
I love seeing these stories and being part of these stories.
(21:09):
It's inspiring. And you know, it doesn't end with each
story just begins.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Frank, if you could, how did your family realize what
Stephen did? How did that news come down to you
that he was the firefighter who geared up and ran
through the tunnel. How was that? How did you learn that?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Well? His So I didn't learn all at once exactly
what happened. I didn't know that day. We didn't know
that day. I will say that I was in my
house when the South Tower fell at nine point fifty
nine and I turned to my mother in law and
not knowing has Stephen gotten there or anything, and I said, Nancy,
(21:53):
I think I just lost my brother, and a little
more emotional than that, to say the least. I didn't
know it until like a day or two later, when
I heard a couple stories that they saw somebody saw Stephen.
A fire truck saw Stephen run through the tunnel. That
truck never got through the tunnel. He made it there
(22:15):
on foot before the fire truck did. And also his car.
His truck was parked right outside the mouth of the tunnel.
He was pulled over to the side. And it was
funny because the first year we did the tunnel, the
towers run, which was just the last Sunday in September
of two thousand and two, so almost on the one
year anniversary, there was a couple watching TV and they
(22:38):
saw us, you know, they saw that we were onning
my brother, and they saw his picture and they contacted
me afterwards and they said, we saw your brother come
to a screeching halt just before the mouth of the tunnel.
He jumped out of his truck and calmly put on
his gear and jogged into the tunnel. And when I
(22:59):
was told that, I mean, I was just overcome with emotion.
But I already knew that. Obviously it was a year later.
We already had to run, so we know we did it,
but just to hear that eyewitness saw him pull up
in the truck and said they said they often wondered
what happened to that man. And I've talked to these
people all the time. Matter of fact, I on our website.
(23:23):
They're one of the ones that did a video for
us about nine to eleven and they talked and they
talk about Steven. So a lot of a lot of
eyewitness people saw him do it and the truck right
outside of the tunnel. And of course, you know a
lot of people from Squad one were recovered, but Stephen
was never recovered. Like almost a thousand people that died
(23:44):
that day would never recovered.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (23:46):
Wow, we're speaking with Frank Siller, who is the CEO
of Tunnels the Towers Foundation. Again T the number two.
T dot org is the sweat website that you want
to go to. Why if you're listening to just go
to it right now and sign up to donate eleven
dollars a month because that eleven dollars a month is
going to do so much. Frank, I've got a lot.
I do a lot in the veteran community. I've got
(24:09):
veterans who are friends of mine that you've helped. I've
been in the houses where you've helped them. Some of
them are not even building houses. A couple of them.
You remodel them. They had a house that was kind
of not done very well when they first got in it,
and you went in and remodeled it and made it
so it was more livable for them, which is amazing too.
That's one of the things that we nobody mentions that
(24:29):
you do that as well. And I think the key
to this is what you've built here. I've done a
lot of charity work over my life, and a handout
is no good, but a hand up is a life
changing event. And these are a hand up because of
all these programs to a lot of these people. You
allow them to have a life, to.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
Move forward, to get their lives back well.
Speaker 3 (24:49):
And a lot of them thought they were finished. They
weren't going to have a life, right, you know. You
always run that risk of suicide with a lot of
these heroes because they're so devastated with their injuries. But
giving them the hand up that you do allows them
to continue to live in many of them most of
them prosper.
Speaker 2 (25:04):
Yeah, yes, and most of them do. And that's even
with the homeless veterans. They response rate when we get
them into these villages that were building is it's incredible.
These instructured people. You know, they just saw horrific things
and went through horrific things and for whatever the reason,
you know, they went down a tough path. You know,
they wouldn't leaven behind on the battlefield, so we shouldn't
(25:25):
leaven behind in the streets of America, that's for sure. Yeah,
and you know, and so yeah, a lot of them
do respond in such a beautiful positive way. Have struggles
come on. You know what it's like to live with
the missing couple lembs and traumatic brain injury or your
paraplegic quadripolitic all your life. I mean, they have their
hurdles every single day, and it's miraculous that they have
(25:48):
the courage that they have. But obviously these great heroes
have courage. They would never join the service and protected
us if it wasn't for the courage they already.
Speaker 3 (25:59):
Had bid them so and Frank, often the physical injuries
are are devastating, but the mental injuries sometimes are even
harder to overcome. And I know you're doing a lot
with that as well, especially with the homeless, giving them
a dignity again and giving them a life back where
you know, some of them, as you said, they can't
unsee what they've been through and seen, and sometimes it's
(26:21):
too much. But at least what you're doing giving them
a little dignity back and giving them a home, it's
a step in that direction. And most of them are
able to recover enough to live the rest of their
lives at least right.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
And we do offer mental health support for everybody, not
just the homeless vetterment. So everyone in our including the children,
including the children, we know that, you know, they need
a lot of people need to talk about it. You know,
they need to talk about it. And we offer that
to everybody who we've ever helped inside the tunnels of
(26:57):
Towers family. And it's quite a large family. I got
to tell you, it's quite a large family. We were
seven of us, but now we're thousands of us and.
Speaker 1 (27:08):
All over and Frank, your brother Steven had five children himself.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Yeah, and they're all doing unbelievable. His wife is strongest
a rock. They barry strong women. They have to. These
women know that the possibility that the husband's not going
to come home. And you know, I think about the
you know, holiday season. I think of officers sing in
California who on Christmas night went to his night tour.
(27:33):
And when I say when you give your kids a kiss,
cobuye and you don't come home, you know that's not
just you envision that, right, you're envision when I say that,
you know, service member room or first responda givesday kiss
and kiss good bye and they don't come home. Well,
on that Christmas Day he gave the last thing that
he did was kiss his little baby goodbye and he
didn't come home. And you know we remember getting on
(27:57):
Fox and talking about that. He was right on Christmas
Day and we raised the money in a very short
order and paid off his mortgage. But it all, you know,
the first responders all started with the detectives Loom Ramos,
well you remember them. It was just just a ten
year anniversary, was just at of service with both the widows.
(28:18):
The other day, December twentieth, twenty fourteen, detectives Loo and
Ramos were assassinated just because they were cops. And that's
how we started to pay off mortgages. So it wasn't
until December twenty twenty fourteen that we started to pay
off these mortgages for all these great heroes. And all right,
I heard about that they were worried about where they're
going to stay in their homes. And on Christmas Eve,
(28:40):
I was at their house. Tunnel the tower was we're
going to we're going to We're going to pay off
your mortgages. And I spoke to each one of the
widows and it made a tremendous difference and it changed
our foundation again. Yeah, we went from just building the
smart homes and now taking care of these great year
heroes all across America. So look, you know we're we're
on a certain path. The work is never done. Sad
(29:02):
to say. You know, we're going to always lose service members,
We're always going to lose first responders, and there's always
going to be some kind of homeless veteran problem and
you know we want to eradicate that, but the problem
will always be there. And the Tunnel, the Talis Foundation
wants to be the conduit to helping all these great people.
(29:23):
And you know we ask you to you join us
on a mission. So many people have I promise you
I'm not going to waste your money. I promise you
we're going to deliver to these great heroes as quickly
as possible. And I promise you that we won't forget
about that once we do take care of them that
they're going to They're not going to be forgotten. Their
loved ones are not going to be forgotten. They're going
to be part of our story, part of the Tunnels
(29:45):
of Talis story forever. So I can't thank you enough
for having me on.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Thank you, Frank, and listen. I just want to close.
I just want to close my saying in honor of
your brother to all of our listeners. While we have time,
let us good. Donate to this organization. Folks, donate to
this organization.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
T to T dot org. Do it right now. It's
very simple you can do. You can help Frank the
way he's asking for help by going to T to
t dot org and donating eleven dollars a month. You
can do it. It's not hard. If you have a
credit card, if you have a debit card, whatever, you
have eleven dollars a month, even if you're on a
tight budget. I understand that we're all struggling. Now give
(30:26):
up those couple of cups of coffee a week that's
taking it, and take that money and do some good
for not only our heroes, but the families who are
left behind. You know, Frank, I've seen some of these
widows who are just devastated and they find out that.
You know, every time any of these heroes leave for
a tour of duty, they may not come home, and
(30:47):
the wife lives with that. The spouse lives with that
every day. And now to find out that the mortgage
is paid, that's that's fantastic. It's got to be a relief.
It doesn't bring the hero back, but at least they
can move forward.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Indeed, Frank, thank you so much, sir. We'd love it
if it's okay with you, We'd love to keep in
touch with you, and anything that we can do to
help you in the Hudson Valley, you can count on it.
We've been talking to Frank Siller, CEO of Tunnels to Towers,
in honor of all of the great work that he does.
Folks in the Hudson Valley, please listen to us, Please
support this organization. Thank you, Frank, Thank you, God bless you.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Bet
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