Oh Canada...Murray Merkley

[E40FDNYL35]

Saturday, April 9, 2005 --In the days after the World Trade Center attack, Murray Merkley devised a plan to help the families of the 343 New York City firefighters who died on Sept. 11, 2001. His North York-based hat-manufacturing company designed a baseball cap with the soon-to-be-famous "FDNY" logo and the crossed flags of Canada and the United States. Then it enlisted local firefighters to help sell them, with the promise that a portion of the proceeds would go to a Fire Department of New York charity.
What started in a few Toronto fire stations soon caught on with chains such as Canadian Tire and National Sports. The Toronto Maple Leafs even got involved, inviting firefighters to sell caps at the Air Canada Centre during their Dec. 8, 2001, game with the New York Rangers. That one night saw 2,418 hats sold.
By the time the campaign wound down in March, 2002, more than 44,000 caps had sold, raising $291,021. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the New York Fire Fighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund hasn't received a cent from Merkley Headgear.
The fire stations that collected money directly sent their share -- about $160,000 -- to the 9/11 fund. But the company that launched the initiative has never handed over the $130,000 it made, even though its owners still use pictures of the FDNY ball caps in marketing efforts -- as well as a shot of a group of about 200 former employees perched on a fire truck in Toronto.

[Scoop422]

This is a disgrace. I bought one of the hats at the Union hall so I'm glad to see that money made it. I still see people wearing the hats and I'm sure they would be outraged to learn that someone made a profit on them.

[LadyCapn]

Scoop, that isn't the same hat that the OFM was selling as well was it? Operation Maple Leaf?

[RspctFrmCalgary]

Despicable!

I missed this thread. Now I understand the "Part Two" on the other thread.

[50FFEMT]

Absolutely sickening. I'm glad all our crew bought ours from a unioned station. So embarassed to share a country with those weasels.

[Dave404]

50ffemt- now now - thats eastern Canada, They arent like the rest of us. Its kind of like west and far east are good (Nova Scotia, PEI) and so is the west. We have no control over what they do. For all I care take a baseball bat to his knees!
Dont feel bad either because we bought caps too!