Four-Alarm Surprise

It takes me way too long to sit down and write, I know. Anyway, back in late February, we were given a HUGE surprise that completely blew us away. The chiropractic office where we get Zach's HBOT treatments told us they needed to contact Renee's parents to clue them in on details for a surprise for us.

It was scheduled for Feb. 21. So, when that day come around, we were led out to east Denver where the Fire Department has their training facility. We went up to a classroom where other families with special needs kids were gathered. There were two big firetruck wagons in the front of the classroom. I started thinking this was a special class to teach kids about fire safety in unique circumstances (with disabled kids) and Zach would get a chance to ride around in the wagon.

The organizer, Tony, gathered everyone together and started talking. Tony explained how a year ago he was talking with a firefighter co-worker of his who had a son with CP. Tony asked if there was anything the fire department could do to help out; how was he doing; how was the family, etc. The co-worker responded they were all doing well and handling the situation, but the thing that really killed him was his son would never be able to ride a firetruck. Tony responded, "we'll change that."

So Tony and a few other firefighters custom built their co-worker's son a firetruck wagon. The child loved it so much, they decided to do this every year for a special kid. Tony takes his son to the same chiropractor we do for HBOT. He had seen Zachary several times and secretly chose Zachary to be the next one to build a wagon for.

And here they were presenting it to us! Renee and I had tears in our eyes, it was such a tremendous and wonderful surprise. Such outpouring of care and love from relative strangers! The wagon is absolutely amazing! It has real working lights, a bell, a ladder on the side. The front grill has his name cut out of the metal, and his name is emblazoned on the dashboard inside. The wagon is also upholstered inside, has cup holders and a pull switch to turn on the lights.

Zach's going to be crusin in style!

After the presentation, they had a whole list of activities planned for the training facility - drive a video-game firetruck, go into a smoky training house to find a baby doll, and get to go up 100 feet in the air in the firetruck bucket.