LAKE FIREFIGHTERS SHAVE HEAD FOR 7 YEAR OLD FIREFIGHTER'S SON BATTLING LEUKEMIA
Lake County, Florida – Members of Professional Firefighters of Lake County spent weeks gathering pledges to shave their heads. Teaming up with local citizens, local businesses, and even Santa Claus, the head shaving and family fun day held at BlackBear Smokehouse in Mt. Dora raised over $5,000 to help support little 7 year old Jay Ryon. Jay Ryon is the son of a Lake County Firefighter, Nick Ryon, and was diagnosed with Leukemia in late January. “We wanted to support the family, as we knew they would have medical bills mounting,” explains Lt. Brian Gamble, Vice President of the Lake County Firefighters. “We all wanted to be as tough as little Jay, so we decided to shave our heads in support of him.” Jay lost his hair during the strenuous rounds of chemo treatments he started receiving in January. Jay’s dad and mom both shaved their heads to help Jay feel right at home, and it was only natural for his other brothers and sisters in the department to follow suit.
The family started a facebook page called, Team Jay to keep other family members up to speed of Jay’s treatments and progress. However, the page blew up and Jay quickly grew a following of over 8,000 supporters on his page. “They post fun stuff to keep Jay smiling. Some of his favorites are videos of silly animals. He loves going through all of them, and then help’s his mom and dad with a nightly blog for everyone” Gamble states.
The Shave-a-thon was hosted along with a family fun day. Firefighters and others from all around the area donated time and services to help make the event a big success. “$5,000 is very good for a fund raiser in our area, but we know it is only a drop in the bucket with the years of chemo treatments he will be facing. It was awesome to see our guys and girls get their heads shaved for pledges. We even had firefighters from Seminole & Osceola Counties come over to get their heads shaved and show support” explains Gamble. “It truly is a brotherhood and one big family. We had many of our other municipalities help out with fund raisers as well. We even had a department in Maryland that heard about Jay and put together a shave-a-thon to mirror our event the same week. It is awesome! We are all confident that with all the love and support Jay is receiving, he will beat this!”
In addition to the firefighters shavings, Santa Claus flew in and had his head shaved too. He joined several others from the community that all wanted to show their support for little Jay.
Many of the events are hosted or organized through a charity established by the Lake County Firefighters in 2012, called the Lake County Firefighters Charity. The charity is also selling t-shirt and taking donations for the family. More information can be found at www.lakefirefightercharity.org
|