The Fire Department used money from my pocket and a few supporters to provide the ladders, the installation, and the supervised drills for an escape for the second-floor occupants of as many people as we could afford. The biggest problem were windows that small children could open to throw the ladder out of were pretty expensive. I worked the best deal I could with the window replacement company but demand quickly overwhelmed the money needed to buy the supplies even though some families contributed toward the expenses. Members of the volunteer unit started contributing more money. Other people and churches started giving us donations. One of the fireman’s wives was a CPA and got us a foundation established whose donations were tax-deductible. The foundation was called Caroline’s Ladders of Hope. I cried when they announced the founding of the charity. We encouraged people to put it on their Facebook page.
The program continued to grow with our limited resources for several years. Our waiting list for ladders was getting so long that I began to fear that some child might die while their home was on the wait list. I wasn’t aware of it, but my fire station nominated me for National Volunteer Fireman of the Year. I won and my story made Fox and Friends morning show. I was interviewed on national TV. I broke down and cried when I told Caroline’s story. I admitted to the nation that I was at fault and this program was my repentance. Our website got almost 100,000 hits the first day our segment was broadcast. Our donations were well over a million dollars. Other volunteer and regular fire departments asked to replicate our program model. We required free ladders, free installation of ladders and windows, if needed, and mandatory drills by the occupants to make sure they knew how to use the ladders. We accepted donations but did not require them.
It was less than six months from our first installation before we got our first reported ‘save.’ A nine-year-old girl was able to escape a fire using one of Caroline’s ladders. We got a boost in website hits and donations from the publicity. It was seven months before we got our first complaint. Surprisingly, it wasn’t from parents whose kids were sneaking out of the house by using the ladders. The complaint was from Emily, and it was personal.
Emily had heard about the program and, instead of being thrilled, she was horrified. She sent me an email:
“Dear Asshole: Just when I think you couldn’t get any lower than the scum of the earth, you come up with something new. Using our daughter’s name to raise money for some bogus program just so you can get fame and personal fortune is the worst insult you could make to her precious memory. I know now that your supposed sorrow at her death was fake. Well, I have instructed my lawyer to sue you for use of our daughter’s name without my permission. I will also be asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate how the money at ‘Caroline’s Ladders for Hope’ is actually used. I have already contacted several news media to tell them the truth about you and your organization.