They're not just Firefighters

Part 1

So.... my brother, Noah was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy at the young age of 5. Muscular Dystrophy is a neurological disease that causes muscles to weaken over time. You're probably wondering how Noah having this disease connects to the City of Cortland Fire Department. Allow me to explain. The Fire Department did this thing called "Fill The Boot." Basically... firefighters from the City stood out in the road and collected donations from drivers. They did it on a busy road on graduation day for the local college that was just down the road. In April or May of 2008, my mom gets a call from the MDA representative from Central New York and she tells my mom that two of the members from the City of Cortland Fire Department had contacted her and that they wanted to met Noah. Laura Lee then gave my mom the phone number for one of the firefighters. My mom then called up one of the firefighters and he said that his name was Derek Reynolds (now Deputy Chief) and that he and Jim Zelsnack (now Captain) wanted to meet Noah and basically adopt our family into the fire department. So on one afternoon... my mom and my brother went down to the fire station for the very first time. Jim even carried Noah up the stairs on his back. They even put Noah into one of their office chairs that they had upstairs and showed Noah the upstairs. The City of Cortland Fire Department even made Noah their ambassador. My brother went to his first Fill The Boot in May of 2008. My brother almost always went to the Fill The Boots except in 2009 when there was a thunderstorm and in 2013 as they didn't have it as the MDA was going through some changes. My brother went in 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. They didn't have it in 2020 due to COVID or in 2021. My brother was invited in 2022 but.... Noah just didn't want to go as it was getting harder on his body to go places. In May of 2014, Firefighter Drew Hill (now Captain) took over the role of being in charge of Fill The Boot. Drew is the most amazing guy that you could ever meet. Drew cared a lot about Noah and our family. He always invited Noah and my family down for the Fill The Boots. I have practically grown up around these firefighters. Also in May of 2014, my brother and Drew were interviewed by our local radio station. When my brother graduated from High School in 2017, the Fire Department awarded Noah with a scholarship of $250 for all the Fill The Boot's. In May of 2019, my brother had a few major health issues. He had aspiration pneumonia which that everything that he was eating and drinking was going into his lungs. He had his first bronchoscopy in May of 2019. My brother was able to go to Fill The Boot in 2019 but... he wasn't able to go to the Check Presentation. The Check Presentation was something that happened after every Fill The Boot. In June of 2019, my brother had to get a feeding tube due to the aspiration pneumonia. On the day before Noah got the tube or a few days before, Noah had Drew, Derek, and Travis visiting him at the hospital. They even called Jim up on the phone and put the phone on speaker. They even sent pizza and wings over to the house for me and my dad since my mom had went to the hospital with my brother. My brother didn't have any more major health issues after getting the feeding tube for a while. In December of 2019.... me, my mom, and my dad had planned a surprise for my brothers 21st birthday as Noah wasn't supposed to make it past 16. We wanted to see how many cards we could get. We spread the message and the Fire Department even spread the message. On December 19th, 2019 which was my brothers birthday, the Fire Department showed up with a gift for Noah. It was a new Xbox controller and a headset. They also presented Noah with all the cards. We got a total of 501 cards. In June of 2021, my mom gets a text from Drew asking when would be a good time for Noah's CFD drive by for graduating college since they missed the first one. We had the big ladder truck and two engines taking over the end of the street near our house. All of the firefighters got out of the trucks and talked to Noah. They even gave Noah a card and a $50 gift card to GameStop. In February of 2022, my brother was transferred to Wilson Hospital in Johnson City for pneumonia. Since my brother has always had a one lung that has looked weird and has had scar tissue on it since 2019, the doctor thought that it was a pneumothorax and put a chest tube in and that ended up puncturing one of my brothers lungs since he didn't need the tube. So... the doctor took it out and then it was fine and Noah was able to come home. In June of 2022, that was when Noah started to be in and out of hospitals. He spent a week in Syracuse and then came home and then went back. On one of the rescue calls, Derek who was the Battalion Chief at the time showed up to my house and I don't think that Battalion Chiefs are required to come for a standard rescue call. Derek just stood in my brothers doorway, shocked at how skinny Noah was as he hadn't seen him since 2019 at Noah's Birthday Party. Noah ended up going to our local hospital for two days and then came home and then went back. On another rescue call, we all hear a fire truck pull out front and we're all confused because typically, fire trucks don't show up for rescue calls and just the scout car comes. All of a sudden, Drew almost hit the door frame because he is so tall and he is like a flash of lightning through the living room into Noah's room and basically pushes everybody else out of the way and takes over. One of the other firefighters was telling me, my mom, and my dad that Drew must be pretty fond of Noah because he said that when Drew heard the call come over the scanner he said "That's Noah. We're taking the engine." Noah ended up going to our local hospital and then got transferred to Arnet Medical Center in Elmira. After my brother got released in July, he was good for a while. He sadly passed away on October 3rd, 2022. The day after he died, we had Derek, Bradley, and some other firefighter standing in our kitchen just talking about how crazy it was that Noah was gone. They even brought us Pizza and Wings. We even asked Derek if the fire department could put a truck out in front of the funeral home and he said sure and that they listen to the family and what they want to do. My dad also suggested a ride in the fire truck from the funeral home to the wake and from the wake to the our house and he said sure. On October 8th, 2022 which was the day of Noah's funeral, we arrive at the funeral home to see a fire truck, all decorated in the black and purple banners. Some of the firefighters who weren't on duty showed up wearing their dress uniforms. Derek even spoke at the funeral basically saying that Noah's personality could never be duplicated, ever and how a lot of the philanthropy that they do at the fire department is because of Noah and will continue because of Noah. The ironic part was at the funeral before the funeral home director got up to talk at the end of the funeral to tell everyone that there was a gathering after the funeral.... all the firefighter's pagers went off and it was almost like a sign from Noah. A week after the funeral, we had Drew, Jim, Travis, Bradley, and Mitch at our house giving us the flag and a $1000 check to help with any unpaid expenses. Almost every time that me and my mom are walking by or driving past the fire station and they see us then they almost always wave if they see us. One time in March of 2023 when me and my mom were walking past the fire station, we see that they are just getting back from call and we see Jim and Mitch waving at us and me and my mom just wave back and keep walking until both Jim and Mitch come out of the apparatus bay and then talked to me and my mom for about 5-10 minutes. In May of 2023, it came time for Fill The Boot and my mom got a text from Drew the day before Fill The Boot if me and my family would want to come down for the Fill The Boot. Of course my mom said that we would go down and I was like "At least they didn't forget about us." Me and my mom then decided to stop by Price Chopper which is a grocery store and picked up some cookies for the firefighters and I also wrote a card to the members of the fire department and thanked them for always treating my brother amazingly and how they should get more praise for serving the community. Me and my mom arrive at Fill The Boot and my dad didn't want to go just because and me and my mom see the original trio which consists of Drew, Jim, and Derek. We stayed down there for almost two hours and just talked to everybody. These firefighters will always be important and special people to me and my family. They are all amazing people, individuals, and firefighters.