By Susan Monteleone
LAVA — January 28, 2003 – On December 28, Priscilla Andrewski was told the news every wife dreads: her husband, Mark, had died in a tragic car accident.
She was left speechless.
Funeral preparations were made, and the Narrowsburg resident laid her husband to rest.
Shortly thereafter, more news arrived – but this time, it was of a far happier nature.
Andy Chmura and Mike Fuchs, officers of the Lava Fire Department, came to Priscilla to let her and her two children know that the department and the community were going to help her by holding a community fund drive to raise money for the Andrewski family.
That effort is now in full swing, as the Department has posted coffee cans with the Andrewski name on them throughout Narrowsburg, White Lake, Fosterdale, Lake Huntington, Cochecton, Cochecton Center, Hankins, Long Eddy, Callicoon, Beach Lake, Pa., and Eldred. The cans ask for donations for Andrewski’s two sons.
Lava Fire Department Chief George Stumpfler commented, “Mark was a man who was taken from us way too young, and he will be missed by all of us. I am very proud of Mike and Andy for putting this together, and the Lava Fire Department will be there to help the Andrewskis in any way we can. From a simple coffee can donation to whatever it takes, we will be there for the family.”
Fuchs added, “Mark was like a brother to me. We did everything together. . . . I never thought he would not be here today.
“He was a sportsman, he loved Indian stuff and antiques, his motorcycles and, most of all, his family. No one could ever say anything bad about Mark – he was well known, and everyone loved him. When we were putting out the cans, the places that have them could not wait to help, and we thank them for that.”
“We were close, and he is my son Victor’s godfather,” said Chmura of Andrewski. “We were good friends. I knew him for 18 years, and there is a void in my life without him here. Mark was not a member of the Lava Fire Department officially, but if he was at a scene or saw something, he was the first one there to help. To all of us, he was a member of the Lava family.”
The cans for donations for the Andrewski children will be available until the last Sunday in February, when the donations will be given to the Andrewski family. Anyone who would like to make a donation to the fund but can’t find a coffee can can send a donation to the First National Bank of Jeffersonville, Andrewski Fund, Peck’s Plaza, 120 Kirk Road, Narrowsburg, NY 12764.
“At first I was a little hesitant on the fund drive, but it is a good thing, and the guys are super,” said Priscilla Andrewski. “The day of the funeral, Mike and Andy assisted me at the funeral home, and then Lava Fire Department member Robert Kent went up and opened the Lava Fire House for us and got everything ready for the dinner after the funeral. He made sure the heat was on and the oven and even that the beverages were ready to go. I would never have remembered to do all of that.
“If it was not for those three guys and the fire department, I am not sure I would have made it through the events after the funeral, and I want to say a special thank-you to them as well as the Lava Fire Department and all of Mark’s friends and the community for all the support and love they gave to me and my family during this recent very sad event in our lives,” she said.
For further information on the fund drive, please call the Lava Fire Department at 252-3375 or mail a donation to the department itself in care of the Mark Andrewski Fund, Box 456, Narrowsburg, NY 12764.