COIN DEALER RAISES $2K FOR DETROIT FIRST RESPONDERS

It is now 3:00 PM on Sunday, April 21, 2013. The last 29 hours has been interesting, to say the least. This email contains a recap of what has happened. I have been promised $2,000.00 in donations for my cause, so it looks like in addition to being a full time coin dealer, I am about to form a nonprofit organization. The nonprofit will initially provide basic medical and fire fighter supplies to Detroit fire fighters and EMS personnel.

The Michigan State Numismatic Society annual spring 4 day coin show started Thursday, April 18th. It was a really good coin show for me, considering that less than a week earlier, two events occurred that left me wondering whether it would be a mediocre show at best. First, gold and silver took significant nose dives on Friday, April 12th and Monday, April 15th. The precious metals market had not recovered, and therefore lower precious metal prices sometimes has an adverse affect on the rare coin market. Second, my long time friend and mentor, Dr. Henry Hilgard passed away. Henry was one of the most knowledgeable people on the processes and technology involved in creating the dies and striking the coins at the first United States Mint in Philadelphia from 1793 to 1836. Henry was a gentleman's gentleman.

On Saturday, April 20th, entry for dealers was at 8:00 AM. Thursday and Friday were long days for me, so I slept in. I arrived at the coin show around 9:30 AM. Had I made it to the coin show at 8:00 AM, what you are about to read would not have happened.

As I pulled into the hotel parking lot, I heard a local news report on the radio – 950 AM WWJ Detroit. Here is the link to the written WWJ news report. I have been unable to locate a link to the actual broadcast.

detroit.cbslocal.com/2013/04/20/left-without-supplies-for-wounded-victims-detroit-firefighters-beg-public-for-help/

The first 3 paragraphs of the report are as follows:

Greenfield and Fenkell was less than 10 miles from the coin show, so I thought about stopping off at the fire station after the coin show. Saturday turned out be even better than Thursday and Friday, so I left the coin show early and drove to Engine Company 53. I had no idea what fire fighters needed, or how many they needed, so I was hoping to give them cash, get a donation receipt, and leave. This is where things got interesting.

After arriving at the fire station at around 1:30 PM, I parked and walked into the building. The fire station doors were open, exposing the fire trucks for all to see. I yelled out “Hello” a few times, and someone came out of a back room. He escorted me to the dispatch room / office / TV room, and I explained that I heard the radio news report, and that I wanted to donate cash. Detroit Fire Stations cannot take cash donations. If the cash ends up missing, it’s a major scandal. They only accept goods. I asked them what type of goods, how many, and was it for just their fire station or did other fire stations need help too.

When they realized I was serious, they called Brian Clayborn. He is a Detroit fire fighter and first responder, and is the person behind the WWJ radio news report. He drove down to the station and we spoke for about 15 minutes. I gave him my business card, and he told me that he would send me an email with what they needed.

Detroit has significant financial issues. Although EMS has supplies, they are limited. Detroit fire fighters buy basic medical supplies out their own pockets. When a fire truck responds to a call, the EMS truck may not always go. If there is an injured person on the scene, there are fire fighters that are also EMTs. I live in Canton, Michigan. All of Canton’s fire fighters are EMTs. That is not a requirement for Detroit. On Friday night, Engine Company 53 responded to a call. Brian Clayborn, the person I met with, was the a first responder. There was an injured person. There were no basic medical supplies in the fire truck.

At 2:38 PM, I received an email from Brian. He wanted basic medical supplies for 6 fire stations; various gauze pads, bandages, ointments, tape, sterile gloves, etc., and gym bags to put the supplies in. I was not at home to receive the email. I was at Walmart, explaining the situation to the store manager. She heard the news report on WWJ radio earlier. When she asked me what supplies I needed, I responded I didn’t know yet, but when I get the list, it will be all that Walmart has on the shelves and in the store rooms. Not only did she agree to allow me to empty the store, she told me that Walmart will give me a discount.

Not knowing that Brian already responded to me, I drove to my local Canton fire station. After explaining what I was doing, I was given a tour of their store room, then I was shown what was in their medical supply bags on their fire trucks. I was then given a printout of everything that Canton Fire and Rescue orders for their EMTs, including how much they pay and who their supplier is. The medical supply company is local (Wixom, Michigan), but they are not open on Saturday. On my way home from the Canton fire station, I called my daughter Abby and her boyfriend Adam. They were drafted into helping me out.

At 4:30 PM, Adam, Abby and I drove to Walmart. The store manager was paged, and she assigned someone to help us out. He had a scanner. We emptied Walmart’s shelves. He scanned the barcodes, and we emptied the store room. We got a lot of the items on Brian Clayborn’s list. Walmart didn’t carry things like sterile eye wash, triangular bandages, burn pads, and CPR masks. After paying the $486 bill (after Walmart’s discount), Abby, Adam and I sorted everything in the back of her Ford Edge, and divided everything into 6 bundles, as requested by Brian Clayborn. We left the Walmart parking lot at 6:35 PM.

Abby, Adam and I arrived at Engine Company 53 shortly after 7:00 pm. We dropped off the supplies. Engine Company 53 told us that they would call the other 5 fire stations to come pick up their share of the supplies. The fire fighters were happy, to say the least. We then drove the 30 minutes back to Canton. I commented that it was a lot of stuff in the shopping carts at Walmart, but after dividing everything into 6, it did not look like a lot. Abby mentioned that Sam's Club sells medical gloves. We then went to the Canton Sam's Club, and purchased 1,600 pairs of latex free gloves for around $200. We then drove 30 minutes back out to Engine Company 53, dropped off the gloves, then drove 30 minutes back to Canton.

On Sunday, April 21st, I drove out to Engine Company 53. Brian Clayborn was on duty, and we spoke for about an hour. The Detroit metropolitan area has around 1.5 million people. Of those 1.5 million people, only 4 people responded to the WWJ and Fox 2 news reports. Some stuffed animals were dropped off, as well as some packages of gauze. I was hoping that some person or some organization drove to the fire station in an 18 wheeler with enough medical supplies for a year. No such luck.

I think the fire fighters at Engine Company 53 were still a little leery about what I was doing and why I was doing it. I then explained what had happened to Henry Hilgard, my truck going in for service, getting to the coin show late and hearing the WWJ news report. I told them that I could have made a donation in Henry’s name to the American Medical Association or the American Heart Association, but that was too impersonal for me. What I was doing for the Detroit fire fighters had meaning.

When I told Brian that I had $2,000.00 in promised donations, I thought he was about to cry. He is getting together today with fire and EMS personnel to develop a list of additional items that they need. On Monday, April 22nd, I am going to the medical supply company. Hopefully they will sell supplies to someone walking in off the street, so I can deliver them to Engine Company 53 a few minutes later.

Tuesday through Saturday I will be in Chicago for the Central States Numismatic Society coin show. After I return from Chicago, I will look into starting a nonprofit organization, and then request support from foundations (such as the Walmart Foundation).

With everything fresh on my mind, I decided to type this up. You now know what happened, and now you will know why. This was all done in the memory of Dr. Henry Hilgard. Did Henry have an affiliation with fire fighters? I have no idea. All I know is that at the time, it just felt like it was the right thing to do.

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