Boy from New Hampshire becomes newest Boston firefighter

By adamg on Mon, 12/03/2018 - 8:54am

Early this morning the members of E-3 granted a 10 yr. old boy from NH who is staying in ⁦@CityOfBoston⁩ for surgery his wish. He wanted a ride to ⁦@BostonChildrens⁩ on a fire engine. His wish has been granted. ⁦⁦ pic.twitter.com/D5REbyuPKs

— Boston Fire Dept. (@BostonFire) December 3, 2018

Levi, from Claremont, NH, is a big fan of emergency services. He was scheduled for heart surgery at Children's Hospital this morning. Our own Cybah was part of a chain of people who helped arrange trips in emergency vehicles for him from his home to where he and his parents would be staying in Boston. This morning, he rode to Children's in Boston Engine 3 - after being sworn in as an honorary Boston firefighter.

A big thanks to everyone who reached out and to @BostonFire for making sure our new firefighter got to his surgery at @BostonChildrens safe and in style this morning. pic.twitter.com/0ZMF6tkMJF

— Mayor Marty Walsh (@marty_walsh) December 3, 2018

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Comments

Honorable Mensch

By anon on Mon, 12/03/2018 - 10:08am.

Dammit Cybah - now I'm in the Holiday Spirit!

Hard to read with tears in my eyes

By mg on Mon, 12/03/2018 - 11:00am.

What a way to start my Monday. <3

Thanks, all I did was tweet

By cybah on Mon, 12/03/2018 - 11:15am.

All I did was tweet.

A bit more about this story.

A guy I went to High School (in Claremont) with (Nick Koloski) is always doing something. He's a city councilperson, a firefighter himself, runs a restaurant, and does some 'local charity'. And when I mean 'local'.. it's nick who picks who. So for example, he found a family sleeping in the woods who did not want public assistance. It was during a cold snap, we did a sleeping bag drive and people sent him over 300 sleeping bags (don't worry, he finds families all winter who need bags).

Anyways so Friday afternoon he made a Facebook post about if anyone in his FB friends knew anyone on the Boston Fire Department. Why? A boy was having heart surgery at Children's Hospital. The boy was petrified in going, and Nick thought that if some BFD people showed up at his intake, he would not be afraid.

Well.. I don't know any BFD people directly, but I do have a twitter following and people who retweet my stuff (such as Mr Gaffin). So I tweeted. I got lots of replies.. nothing direct. Around 5pm, I get a DM from Marty Walsh (well one of his assistants), with his blessing to make this happen. So I connected the assistant to Nick.. and they made it happen.

this turned into a big thing.. they were able to get Fire Departments between Claremont and Salem NH yesterday to do a pass off with him. Meaning the boy was picked up in Claremont, driven to the next town in a fire truck, and switched to that town's fire truck, and then on to the next town. In all, 15 towns between Claremont and Salem, NH did the pass off. (unfortunately I just don't know MA FD's to make that happen).

And then this morning, (as seen above) he was picked up by BFD and taken to Children's. Nothing but a big smile on this kid's face. He probably wont remember the surgery, but he will remember this for the rest of his life.

And to think, all I did was tweet and connect people. The power of twitter.

+ The Power of MSM

By Oscar Worthy on Mon, 12/03/2018 - 12:05pm.

Don't be surprised if this story gets picked up by national networks. You might be on CBS Evening News, Fox, and MSNBC by Wednesday . . .

Ya done good, cybah

By lbb on Tue, 12/04/2018 - 10:19am.

Not just for this kid, but for all who helped. It's eye-opening to see how our small actions can make the way easier for others who are going through difficult times. I'm gonna hang on to this lesson.