By Stephen Stirling
Six months after 26−year−old George Dillman was killed in a manhole fire, his family is taking steps to make sure his benevolent spirit is remembered for years to come.
On April 18, Dillman’s family will host the George Dillman Benefit Paintball Game to harness one of his passions: helping others in need.
“This is how George and his friends took their frustrations out, this is how they had fun,” his mother, Anne Dillman, said. “He would’ve loved this.”
Dillman, who had been working with the utility for three years, was splicing two high−voltage cables together beneath Sutter and Euclid avenues in East New York, Brooklyn, on Oct. 9 when an explosion occurred, shooting flames out of the manhole and killing him.
A Queens native, Dillman attended Holy Trinity Roman Catholic School in Whitestone and St. Francis Preparatory High School in Fresh Meadows, where he graduated in 2000. He had been working at Con Edison for about three years and was a volunteer firefighter at the Hicksville Fire Department in Long Island, the same community where he lived at the time of his death.
Hundreds of family, friends, firefighters, utility workers and former classmates, many forced to stand, crowded into Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church to mourn Dillman at his funeral in the week following his death.
Anne Dillman said her family is currently in the process of setting up a scholarship fund at St. Francis Prep. In the meantime, she said the Terry Farrell Scholarship Fund has agreed to accept donations on the Dillman family’s behalf and put them toward the fund once the legal work is completed.
“He loved his school,” Anne Dillman said. “It’s going to be for those kids and families who aren’t doing so well, who can’t make their last payment.”
She said the benefit embodies her son’s spirit.
“He touched a lot of lives,” she said. “He would never say no to anybody. He gave and gave and gave. This was his belief. He felt he had so much that he had to help others who didn’t.”
The benefit will be held April 18 at 10 a.m. at Cousin’s Paintball in Coram, L.I. Those wishing to participate can pre−register at paintballcloseout.com.
For more information and updates, visit cpsaints.com.
Reach reporter Stephen Stirling by e−mail at sstirling@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 138.
