Tunnel to Towers Foundation<\/a> says it is paying off the mortgage of the Easton home for the family of New York Police Det. 1st Grade Omar Edwards.<\/p>\nEdwards was shot and killed on May 28, 2009, when he was in street clothes and attempted to chase a man who had broken into his car, the Foundation said. Plainclothes officers patrolling nearby noticed the pair, mistook Edwards for a perpetrator, and ordered both men to stop. Det. Edwards turned toward them with his gun in his hand, and one of the officers shot him.<\/p>\n
Edwards was posthumously awarded the New York Police Department Medal of Honor and promoted to Detective 1st Grade. In addition to his wife, Danielle, he is survived by two sons, who were under 2 years old at the time of his passing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The support for the Edwards family is part of Tunnel to Towers\u2019 commitment to provide 343 mortgage-free homes this year \u2014 one in memory of each of the 343 New York City Fire Department heroes who died on Sept. 11, 2001.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty-five years later, Tunnel to Towers is keeping its promise to never forget the nearly 3,000 people who were taken from us on September 11th, including my brother, FDNY Firefighter Stephen Siller,\u201d said Frank Siller, chairman and CEO of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. \u201cWhile we look back, we also look forward, standing beside the families of heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice over the last 25 years and making sure their children will always have a safe place to call home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to paying off the family\u2019s mortgage, the Foundation\u2019s Mae and George Siller Scholarship Program will provide full scholarships for undergraduate degree programs and certified and accredited trade programs for Edwards\u2019 children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cExtremely grateful,\u201d Danielle Edwards said of the foundation\u2019s support. \u201cThis means so much to my family and reminds me we are not alone in this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Created after 9\/11, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation provides mortgage-free homes to Gold Star and fallen first responder families with young children and by building specially adapted \u201csmart homes\u201d for catastrophically injured veterans and first responders. Children of the Foundation\u2019s home recipients are also offered full scholarships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York Police Det. 1st Grade Omar Edwards. EASTON, Pa. \u2013 A fallen police officer\u2019s family in Easton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,118568,118569,97205,118570,9746,102647,117749],"class_list":["post-284248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-fallen-police-officer","tag-mortgage-free-home","tag-new-york-police-department","tag-omar-edwards","tag-scholarship","tag-september-11","tag-tunnel-to-towers-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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