Help Will say THANK YOU to our nation’s firefighters!

If you know anything about our son Will, it is that he LOVES anything fire department related. A lot of kids admire grown-ups in important roles like teachers, police officers, postal workers, EMTs, and nurses. Our Will made his decision to be a firefighter at age 2 and has never looked back. We have gone from plastic helmets to full-on legit St. Charles “official” gear from head-to-toe with Will. We’ve attended numerous open houses, dedications, memorials, and push-ins. We have literally driven by St. Charles Stations 1 and 3 every single day for the past seven years. Sometimes more than once. Sometimes more than twice! There is an app that allows you to tune into fire department radio frequencies throughout the country. We primarily tune into Tri-Com as most of our local calls are on that station. But when we travel, we listen to the local department wherever we may be.

Over the past three years, Will has visited several fire departments throughout the U.S. We have gifted boxes of granola bars and cases of Gatorade to fire stations, along with random drop-in moments to say thank you to firefighters in Bloomington and Madison, IN, Pigeon Forge and Nashville, TN, Frankfort, KY, Denver, CO, Milwaukee, WI, and Minneapolis, MN, just to name a few. Will has an extremely giving, grateful, and protective heart. With this in mind, Will has asked for the opportunity to travel throughout the country this year to thank more firefighters! Will has an incredibly large goal that he wants to attain which includes a great deal of the entire U.S.! We told him that we would be willing to make the road trip drives, if he was willing to put in the time and effort to raise the necessary funds to pay for such an endeavor. Considering this, Will came up with the idea of a GoFundMe to help make this happen! We have created three routes that will take place at the end of December / early January, at the end of March 2026, and at the end of July 2026: ROUTE ONE will be to the northwest with the final destination of the Coeur D'Alene, Idaho Fire Department and the Kootenai County Fire and Rescue Department in Post Falls, Idaho after their devastating sacrifices in June 2025 when two firefighters were killed, and another was seriously injured, in an ambush while battling a brush fire. ROUTE TWO will be to central and southwest U.S. ending in Prescott, Arizona to recognize the sacrifice the Granite Mountain Hotshot firefighters made during the Yarnell Hill Fire of 2013 when 19 crew members perished in the blaze. ROUTE THREE will be to the east including New York City, New York to acknowledge the sacrifices made by the fire departments of NYC during 9/11 when the twin towers collapsed killing 343 firefighters among the 2753 people killed.

Will is beyond excited to make this happen. We will be stopping at numerous fire stations along the routes to be able to thank as many firefighters as possible for their service and sacrifice in protecting our towns and cities nationwide!

Where and what will the contributions be used for?

Gifts including hundreds of granola bars, dozens of cases of Gatorade, bags of new socks, thank you plaques, packets of information for the crews, and travel and lodging expenses.

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Thank you for contributing towards Will's dream of becoming a firefighter one day. You will never meet another fourth grader more passionate about firefighting than him! - Chris and Jenny Bui