 Hi there and welcome. Thank you so much for joining us and tuning in today. We're coming to you live for the first time since the pandemic has us all quarantined and kind of shut in. But here we are with with masks and proper social distancing because we felt it was important for you to share in this moment with us. It's a very significant moment for us. And in order for me to share exactly how significant this moment is, I really need to set the stage. DAP is entering its centennial year in September. We're remarking that 100 years the same way we do every day, which is by providing services, voluntary services, employment services, medical benefit services to disabled veterans, veterans and their families as we do every day. But we're also going to be looking back and reflecting on the last 100 years of the events, the people, the veterans who have really built this organization into what it is today and who have propelled our mission from its humble beginnings back in 1920 to where we are today. And as part of that commemoration, as part of that looking back, we're actually going to be casting and creating a large bell. It's going to be a ceremonial bell that will live at national headquarters, very large, very heavy bell, as you can imagine. And it will have artwork and script on it that tells the story of those first 100 years. So that sets the stage where we are now. Now, the part of that bell is going to be, of course, all of the bronze that goes into creating it. But some of the metal in that bell is going to be cast from sacred pieces from our history. Those include a World War One helmet like this replica here. There will be metals from various eras. There will also be a piece of shrapnel from the Marine Corps barracks bombing in Beirut in 1983. And living with that, cast together with that, will be a piece of this sacred metal right here, the sacred steel. And I'm joined here today by Aaron Clark, who is a Marine Corps veteran, a DAV life member. And he's here on behalf of FDNY Fire Family Transport, which is a charity that reminds me a little bit of DAV's transportation network in some ways, and they provide for the transportation needs of injured FDNY members and their families and military members. And he has driven all the way down here from New York to Cold Spring today to deliver this this sacred artifact. Thank you so much for joining us. Yeah, and can you tell me about this this piece? Yeah, so this piece was given to me by the FDNY Fire Family Transport. I believe it was cut on on Memorial Day. And once they heard that you were looking for a piece of trade center steel, Danny Prince, he's a huge driving force of charity and just humanity for the fire department. He wanted to make sure that you that the DAV received a piece of steel to put into your commemorative belt. So you contacted me today, let's try to make this happen. And you know, due to COVID, the airlines weren't able to manage it, so I said it was driving us down here so much. So you drove it down? Yeah. And you know, I should mention with Danny, because he's a friend of DAV's, a supporter of ours, and of course the supporter of yours, a longtime firefighter. Danny is a Coast Guard veteran as well as a Navy veteran, but anytime you can work for Coast Guard in there, you cannot forget our coasties. Yeah, they'd get on us if we don't forget them. So it's important that we mentioned that. And so as I mentioned, this artifact, this sacred piece of steel is going to live, be cast into this belt, it's going to be part of our history, it's going to be there forever as part of the centennial. And it's going to be with those other items, you know, all the way back to World War I. And of course we're honored by that. How do you feel as a firefighter, as a Marine Corps veteran, as a DAV member, knowing that this piece of steel, part of this piece of steel will live in? Well, as a fireman, I was telling you earlier, my house lost 15 members, the city itself lost 343 members. The amount that the military has given to our fire department, our city, for that day, you know, it's so significant. And to have a piece of this honored by the DAV, it just kind of comes together. You know, as a Marine, I think that, you know, to serve my country and to serve my city, it's a great thing that you guys are doing. We can't thank you enough. Number one, for this donation, and again to to FDNY, Fire Family Transport, but also special thanks to you for, again, taking the time, come down here with your family, with your dog, and driving all the way down here from New York to Cold Spring and delivering this. As part of, if you want me to mention that this is part of DAV's 100 Acts of Honor, which is a way that anyone around the country can do a volunteer, a good deed for a veteran, and share that on social media, on Facebook, on Instagram, just using that hashtag, hashtag 100 Acts of Honor. One more question I wanted to ask you about, you know, when I think about, I look back to 9-11, and I had just started working at DAV right after that, and I was surprised to learn about all the different missions of this organization. And one of the things that really surprised me was that we had claims benefits experts, our DAV NSOs, down providing disaster relief to the firefighters who were down down there who were affected. They were down at the Port Authority providing that disaster relief. What, how does that make you feel as a firefighter and a DAV member? It's extremely proud. It's also, for the DAV, it's just something that DAV would have done anyway. And the DAV, it's a great organization. I can never, I speak highly of it on a daily basis to all the veterans that are in my firehouse, everyone that I know. And, you know, it's, to have you guys down there during that time, it's just, you know, improves what an organization that you think that this is, you know, it's, it's incredible. Well, Aaron, thank you so much for joining us. I'm going to let you take us out with a shout out to your latter company, your voice background that you both mentioned. Yeah, I'm with my latter company four in Manhattan, engine 54, latter four in Battalion 9. And, you know, like I said, it's always an honor to be representative of the Fire Department, the Fire, FDMI, Fire Family Transport, and to help veterans that are always in need and to be a part of this. So thank you very much. Thank you, Aaron.