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National Fallen Firefighters Whistlestop Tour 2007
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What is a Whistlestop Tour?
A whistle-stop tour is an expression used to refer to political campaigns, especially in the United States after World War II, where candidates covered a vast amount of territory in a train, at a fast pace, in order to bring their message to the public. The most famous whistle-stop train tour in U.S. history was Harry Truman's 1948 re-election whistle-stop when he traveled 30,000 miles over the Midwest and western United States aboard his train, Magellan. Many observers credit his re-election to this whistle-stop tour.
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America's Fire Heroe's Line-of-Duty Death Prevention Tour visited Charlotte, NC on April 26, 2007. The community stop was at the Lowes store on Chancellor Park Drive from 10:00am to 1:00pm.
The bus is a moving memorial to 3,147 fallen firefighters enshrined on the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial in Emmitsburg, Maryland, was the focal piece of a national tour to reduce the number of firefighter line-of-duty deaths in the United States.
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Line-of-Duty Death: Wayne Copeland
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Created by Amy de Boinville, Patti Odbert, and installed by Applied Advertising, Inc., loving care was taken to ensure that not one letter of any firefighter's name was missing. This was achieved through painstaking work of wrapping the design around the many keyholes, vents, hinges and gaskets of the Whistle-Stop Tour bus. The concept also wrapped the names completely around the bus and leaving no space to signify the sincere hope for mitigating firefighter fatalities in the future.
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Making 20 official stops in major cities across the country, this bus, operated by U.S. Coachways, was seen by thousands of people including: members of the public, the fire service and fire service survivors. It brought to the public a message of prevention and how they could keep their families safe while also ensuring that firefighters come home to their own families. For the fire service, it was not only a tribute to our fallen brothers and sisters but reminded us that we should honor their memory by ensuring that "Everyone Goes Home" after every call. Fire service survivors from across the country were able to locate the name of their loved one, touch it, take photos and recall special memories of their firefighter.
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We offer our sincerest gratitude to everyone who worked tirelessly to make the Whistle-Stop Tour Bus design a reality. This endeavor helped us continue to honor the families of our fallen firefighters and move forward in reducing firefighter fatalities through the Everyone Goes Home Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives Program.
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Line-of-Duty Death: Mark Franklin
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Line-of-Duty Death: Kent Long
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