(Valley Fire) Support for Welter's

My name is Travis Willey I am Anthony and Andrew Welter's friend and Anthony's co-worker. I started this gofundme account for Anthony and Andrew due to the loss of their apartment in the Valley Fire. The following statement is written by Anthony and Andrew's mom Teresa Welter:   " We have had many friends and family ask how they can help my sons. This fund was started by a friend and co-worker of Anthony's and I felt it necessary to give you their story from a mom's perspective. I am their mom. The story goes like this:   Anthony and Andrew moved into their own place at the end of July. Andrew had spent maybe a total of three weeks actually staying in the apartment as he is a South Lake County paid call fire fighter and had been out on strike teams or out covering the fire station for several weeks during various fires. Andrew had made the decision that he was done fighting fires for the season. He was going to just work his Security job at HVLA part time and focus on his homework so that he could finally finish his classes and earn his AA. He said a two year degree has taken him five and it was time to be done so he could start the police academy in January. Unfortunately mother nature had other plans and the Butte fire broke out. He was called to another strike team I tried to convince him not to go and told him that he needed to stick to his decision and put himself first. He told me he just couldn't    do that and not to worry because he "was doing what he loved." He left for the Butte fire and was there for less than 12 hours when the Valley fire broke out. His strike team was emergency demobilized from Butte and they headed straight back to fight Valley. He arrived back in Middletown four hours later just in time to be placed on defense of he and Anthony's apartment complex. Sadly the west side was already fully engulfed and ultimately for safety reasons his team had to retreat. Andrew watched the apartment he shared with his twin brother burn down to the ground in front of his eyes. 10 days later he is still on duty. He had to drop one of his classes and it is now looking like he will be forced to drop the other two. He says he will still enroll in the police academy but it will be more difficult not having his AA. But he is okay with that because he loves his community and its    people. The Valley Fire has taken much from Andrew. It has also taken a lot from his brother. Anthony is just as hard working as Andrew. They are twins and cut from the same cloth. Anthony has earned his AA in law enforcement this past May. He is a certified First Responder, a Community Service Officer at his college and is still a full time student due to complete a second AA this fall in Social & Behavioral Science. He also will be joining the police academy in January and is looking forward to a career in Law Enforcement. These two young men are ambitious, compassionate and productive members of their community and truly believe they can make a positive difference in the lives of others. The loss of their apartment though truly tragic is just a minor set back and in the end will only make them stronger and more determined. I just wanted to give you a better understanding of who you    are donating to or whose story you are sharing. There are many families affected by this devastating fire and our story, (Andrew and Anthony's story) is not anymore deserving then anyone else's but they are my sons and I am a proud mother and I felt they earned the right to have their story told. If you want to help that is great but we are not asking for it. Feel free to pass it on or not. Either way know that these young men will be okay. They are survivors. They are my heroes."   Thank you Travis Willey for thinking of my sons. With friends like you on their side I know they are gonna be fine in this world. You are awesome!