(Everett Police Officer, Dan Rocha, who was killed in the line of duty March 2022. Images courtesy of KOMO News)
The family of an Everett Police officer, killed on the job in March, no longer has to worry about their mortgage payments thanks to a foundation started by the family of a hero who sacrificed his life in an event that touched us all.
FDNY Firefighter, Stephen Siller, was the youngest of seven, raised by his siblings after their parents died when he was just 10 years old. They come from a family like so many, especially, it seems, in New York, who are dedicated to service and full of cops, firefighters and nurses. His brother, Frank, says that dedication to service follows the model of St. Francis.
Frank says on September 11th, 2001, Stephen was just coming home from a shift and planned to meet them for golf when he heard the radio call that the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were hit, so he raced to the Brooklyn Battery tunnel, which Frank says was closed for security reasons. Frank says his brother strapped on 60 pounds of gear and ran the nearly 2-mile length of the tunnel plus the streets of lower Manhattan until he arrived at the South Tower. Stephen’s brother says he saved as many people as he could until he lost his own life in the tower’s collapse. The Siller siblings wanted to honor their brother, and that’s why they started the Tunnels to Towers Foundation.
In 2014, the Foundation started paying the mortgages of young families of first responders who die in the line of duty. Among the latest house notes to be paid off is that of the Stanwood home of Everett Police Officer Dan Rocha’s family. Rocha left behind his wife, Kelli, and two young sons. Kelli says, “It means so much to us that the Foundation would remember Dan’s commitment to his department and community. This donation does more than honor him, it reminds us that even after his death, his works and acts of kindness will live on.”
Frank Siller says he’s talked to many widows who told him they didn’t know how they’d keep their homes or have time to work and take care of their children just to be able to keep up with their mortgages. The Foundation pays off more than 200 of those loans a year, and this year it will pay off one a day between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.
If you want to help, you can go to T2T.org.
