by RICHARD WEIR
Bourbon is not necessarily the type of drink that sits in an unopened bottle on a shelf for long periods of time, collecting dust like a vintage wine.
But that's exactly what has happened to many bottles of Jim Beam sold around Long Island last year - and may soon happen again this year, but in even more places like New Jersey, Connecticut and upstate New York.
That's because for the second year in a row, the Kentucky straight bourbon whisky has broken from its strict tradition and altered its time-honored label to pay tribute to a fallen firefighter, Terry Farrell, who was killed on 9/11, and the scholarship fund created in his honor.
"I don't even drink bourbon, but I have two bottles that I bought as keepsakes," said Nancy Miller, a volunteer firefighter and EMT with the Dix Hills Fire Department, where Farrell, a member of the FDNY's elite Rescue 4 unit in Woodside, Queens, was also a volunteer chief.
"I think it's great because it's not that often that someone like Terry, with what he did, gets that kind of recognition. He was a very good guy," said Miller, who will soon pack up her still-sealed bottles of Jim Beam and take them with her when she moves to a new home.
"I haven't seen one bottle open yet," said Brian Farrell, Terry's brother and a former Nassau County cop and federal agent. "Every fireman who grabs the bottle puts it on a shelf and doesn't drink it."
On Thursday, some 100 firefighters, both volunteers and professionals, along with a Nassau police pipe band, will gather at a Westbury bar to kick off the second commemorative Jim Beam label bottle dedicated to the legacy of Terry Farrell.
For 212 years, Jim Beam, the world's No. 1-selling bourbon producer, had not altered its classic label, other than to add a name to its list of distillers, which dates back seven generations.
But last year, thanks to the efforts of Larry Romer, a former sales executive for the bourbon maker and a friend of Farrell's, Jim Beam tweaked the label, removing its trademark family crest and replacing it with a red fire helmet emblazoned with "343" - the number of FDNY personnel killed Sept. 11, 2001.
This year, the distiller has replaced its traditional white cap with a red one, adding an ax to the fire helmet and replacing the Jim Beam story on the side of the bottle with a short narrative about the Long Island firefighter and the Terry Farrell Scholarship Fund.
The fund, launched by Farrell's five brothers, provides support to the children of firefighters and police officers who die in the line of duty or from illness or other causes. It has also helped outfit high school sports programs with lifesaving defibrillators.
For every case of the bourbon - with or without the commemorative label - sold in New York, Jim Beam donates a dollar to the fund. So far, more than $100,000 has been raised for the fund.
 |
