ย PHOTOS: Bobby Morelli was at the Minnesota State Fire Department Associationโs banquet, listening to the speaker talk about the Minnesota Firefighter of the Year honor. Well, โlisteningโ might be overstating it a bit.
โI was at the state banquet because thatโs where they do firefighter memorials โ and thatโs why I thought I was going, because I was close with one of the firefighters who was honored,โ said Morelli, who thought he was going to honor Tony Rollins.
โIโm telling our Chief, Pat Heinen, all right, after the memorials I can go home?โโ Morelli said. โHe said, โJust stay for dinner.โ
โWe have Class A [the most formal of dress uniforms] on, and I donโt like wearing Class Aโs. So Iโm like, all right, fine, we had dinner. All right, Iโm going to go home. Pat told me I had to stay, have some fun, loosen up.โ
So the banquet reaches the point where the stateโs Fire Chief of the Year was honored, followed by the Fire Department of the Year. Then came the Firefighter of the Year.
“The speaker was giving like a five-minute presentation on this firefighter,โ Morelli said. โHeโs a training captain for this many years. He does this, and heโs just a nice guy, I guess. Whatever. Iโm listening, but Iโm not absorbing what heโs saying.
โAnd the next thing you know, he says, โIโd like to present the Firefighter of the Year award to Bobby Morelli of North Branch.โ And I just look at him, and I just kind of sit there, and everybodyโs standing up and applauding โฆ
โI go up there, and now Iโm nervous, Iโm sweating, shaking the fire marshalโs hand, the commissioner, all these people. And then they point to the microphone, and I give a little speech. Then I go and sit back down, and Iโm just shaking, and Iโm looking at my award, and Iโm like, wow. Itโs very, very humbling.โ
