Generally Speaking: Lynda Thomson receives 2020 Larry Morrish Award
Community coordinator Lynda Thomson, who works for the FDNY Bureau of Operations and is well known for her outstanding public service and support of veterans and members of the Armed Services, was the 2020 recipient of the “Woman of the Year” Larry Morrish Award. The presentation ceremony took place Jan. 13 in front of BRAVO volunteer ambulance corps headquarters on Seventh Avenue and 85th Street.
Penney Santo presents the Larry Morrish Award to Donald Mallozzi as FDNY Chief of Staff Elizabeth Cascio looks on
FDNY Chief of Staff Elizabeth Cascio, a close friend of Thomson’s and of the late Bay Ridge civic leader Larry Morrish, was joined by Liberty Kiwanis Club President Penney Santo as she bestowed the award. Cascio started out as a volunteer BRAVO EMT and knew Morrish as a fellow volunteer. When she was appointed the FDNY chief of staff, she had been serving as the first female executive officer to the fire commissioner in the department’s history. At her appointment ceremony, she said, “I never could have imagined as a 19-year old girl volunteering as an EMT in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, that one day I would be in this position helping to run the busiest and best emergency medical service in the world.” We’re also told that Larry Morrish, although they weren’t related, often referred to Santo as “his daughter.”
The second Morrish award, “Veteran of the Year,” was presented to U.S. Army Vietnam veteran and former NYPD Det. Donald Mallozzi.