(BUFFALO, NEW YORK) – These Tin Knockers have heart.

While you may not have noticed, the Membership and Retirees of SMART (the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers) Local 71 here in Buffalo are continuing to work to make the Buffalo Community a better place to live when it comes to donating their time and services to improve the visitor experience at Buffalo’s Naval Park and helping install a metal ramp for a fellow Union Member who lost one of his legs.

It’s a shining example of what Unions and their Members do when it comes to giving back outside their work hours, blending in behind-the-scenes so their important donations are utilized by those in need and - in the process, making a difference in the lives of so many people here in Western New York.

Case in point #1, the Buffalo Naval Park where Local 71 Retirees first restored the exterior metal panels of some of the jet planes on display and then rebuilt handrails and rotted-out stairs on two ships (The USS Little Rock and the USS The Sullivans) that are moored there on the City’s growing Waterfront.

Now those Union Retirees are inside the USS Croaker Submarine, working in the barracks of the Sub to refurbish the area with new bars, hooks and brackets so the Naval Park can welcome back schoolchildren visitors who will stay overnight, sleeping in many of the bunks of Servicemen who once manned the craft.

“They needed some sheet metal work done on the Sub so we’re working on some hanging bunks,” Retiree Ron Burns, who served as President of Local 71 for nine years, told WNYLaborToday.com while he and several other Retirees worked around him. “We’re ‘doing this just to give back.’  I spent (36) years as a Union Member and ‘it always makes me feel good when I’m giving back.’ ‘We were lucky we were given this opportunity.’”

Local 71 Organizer Adam Kerr said there are about 20 active SMART Retirees here in the Buffalo area who are always ready to get involved and donate their time to worthy causes: “Our Retirees ‘are always giving back.’ They ‘totally volunteer their time and they’re an insane bunch of guys who just don’t stop.’ They are part of our ‘SMART Army’ and ‘they’ve put their money where their mouths are.’”

And it’s just not non-profits that have benefitted from the SMART Army’s Buffalo Squad.

Case in point #2: Dave Garringer - a Member of SMART Local 1373, was working for CSX Transportation on one of its freight trains when it made a stop in Rochester back in May 2023.

As Garringer stepped off the train, he felt the ground shift.

His foot folded “in a very odd way,” he told WNYLaborToday.com.

Unfortunately, the injury worsened over the course of time.

“‘Calamity after calamity,’” he said.

In November (2025), Garringer had his left leg below his knee amputated.

Garringer lives in a house that was originally built in 1890 in the City of Buffalo, which did not make it easy for the five-year Union Member to enter or leave his home.

A wheelchair ramp Garringer acquired unfortunately did not work with the outside layout of his house and he found himself with more than one problem to overcome.

But word went out through the SMART Army pipeline as a SMART Ohio Representative found out a fellow SMART Member in Buffalo needed help.

Shortly thereafter, “Local (71’s) guys showed up,” Garringer said.

“I was ‘blown away,’” he said. “They pulled up on a Monday, took the ramp (he had) away, (reworked it) and were back on Friday (to install it). ‘It’s wonderful.’ ‘They did an amazing’ job. ‘So many people ask me how this all happened’ - and I tell them: ‘My Union did this!”

“It’s ‘very humbling,’” Garringer, 45, continued. “I’m ‘still going through a myriad of emotions because you just don’t hear about this kind of help when something happens to you.’ I’m ‘very proud’ of my Union, ‘which is a wonderful thing.’ ‘They’re there to fight for you when your contract comes up, and all this and that, but when people need help - they are there.’ It’s ‘awesome.’ ‘I didn’t know the SMART Army even existed.’ SMART ‘doesn’t get the exposure (publicly and through the media) that they deserve.’”

Local 71 Organizer Kerr said: “(Garringer) is a ‘great’ guy. We took measurements, took away what he had (to the Union Training Center for adjustments), brought the wheelchair ramp back and installed it. The old one ‘just wasn’t right.’ It ‘sloped and had problems’ (fitting) on his porch. So ‘with a little bit of work and our Retirees there to help us, it took just one full week before we installed it’ on (in mid-November). It’s ‘another example of the SMART Army giving back in our area, but this was life-changing for me.’ ‘It felt great and I really don’t have another experience to compare this to.’ (Garringer) was ‘in tears.’ ‘That’s how grateful he was.’”

Local 71 Business Manager Tim Benes told WNYLaborToday.com: “This says (Local 71) is ‘ready, willing and able to help.’ ‘That’s what we want to do.’ Our Retirees ‘jump on these things.’ ‘This makes me proud to be a Sheet Metal Worker, but you know it’s just part of our culture.’”

In addition, Local 71 also made a several hundred-dollar donation over the Christmas Holidays from its Membership after conducting a food drive for the local Friends of Night People Food Pantry in Buffalo. The Union delivered a number of non-perishable food items, as well as health and hygiene products and baby diapers for distribution to those in need.

WNYLaborToday.com Editor's Note: Photos Provided By SMART Local 71.