BRIDGE ][ FOUNDATION

Bridge Foundation organized an airlift to Kabul.  Firefighters and police officers from New York City visited troops from the U. S. Special Forces and the 10th Mountain Division deployed in Afghanistan in the days before Christmas, 2001.

Sponsored by the Spirit of America Fund, the September 11th support fund established by the employees of Diageo of North America in Stamford, Connecticut, members of the Fire Department of New York and the New York Police Department delivered 47 tons of urgently needed food, nutritional supplements and blankets to Bagram Air Base, 40 miles north of Kabul on December 21st.  The materials were consigned to the World Food Program for the Tahiya Maskan and other orphanages in Kabul and central Afghanistan.  Over 700 children at the Tahiya Maskan home warmly welcomed the group, where the FDNY and PDNY officers handed out toys and candy to throngs of Afghan children orphaned during the years of Taliban rule.

All of the firefighters and police officers who participated were involved in the rescue and recovery efforts at Ground Zero on September 11th.