Make A Child Smile

National Safety Council Magazine
"Every Second Counts" - March, 2000

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Firefighters Help Make A Child Smile
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Saving a child's life is a given for firefighters on-the-job. But even off-duty, firefighters worldwide joined to make one special child smile.

Taylor was born in 1991 with cerebral palsy and severe spastic quadriplegia. Since he first was featured on the Make A Child Smile website at www.makeachildsmile.org and later on Firehouse.com, hundreds of fire and rescue departments from across the country have responded with loving cards and gifts.

Make A Child Smile is the brainchild -- and labor of love -- of Alexandra Bakker, who decided to create the website in May 1998 after browsing the Internet and finding dozens of individual home pages for children coping with life-threatening diseases.

"I kept thinking, why not put up a website where all the information about these children could be captured in one place and where people could read their courageous stories. Once you do, you feel blessed with what you have. But I never expected to have 10,000 to 15,000 hits a month," Alex says.

Alex narrows the selection to U.S. residents who are younger than 13 with very serious diseases. Before she selects a child, she verifies his or her medical information. The child's last name and address are kept confidential, and parents are required to set up a post office box. Visitors to the website are requested to send cards, notes or/and gifts.

"With Taylor, his mom sent me pictures of him visiting his local fire house. So I searched the Web and found the website Firehouse.com and asked if the online magazine could do an article about Taylor. More than 400 fire stations from around the world have responded so far, sending cards, T-shirts, baseball caps, firefighter gloves and helmets, toy fire trucks, books, stickers, fire department logo shirts -- just so many things," says Alex, a self-described firefighting buff.

A leather fire helmet that protected its wearer from harm when a building's ceiling collapsed was a particularly touching gift sent to Taylor. Captain Rich Trommer of the West Hartford Connecticut Fire Department says he didn't do anything that any other firefighter wouldn't do.

"For firefighters, kids hold a soft spot in our hearts," the 25-year veteran says. "If you've ever been to a car crash and have seen a child trapped or hurt or have been to a fire and had to pull a child out, you think of your own kids. You push yourself harder."

After sending the helmet, Trommer pulled together a shirt complete with captain's bars, a badge and a name-plate. "Taylor was so excited, he wore it to show-and-tell at school. It was something I wanted to do, but many people got involved to get it done."

Trommer and his wife maintain contact with Taylor and his mom, as well as several other children who have appeared on the Make A Child Smile website. "The website runs updates so you can follow the kids -- you get attached to them."

Also moved by Taylor, the New York City Firefighters Hockey Team, at www.fdnyhockey.com, recently sent him and his sister two child-size team shirts, as well as coloring books and fire department T-shirts and hats. For 27 years, the team has donated all its proceeds to charitable organizations.

Team secretary Stephen Doyle says Taylor's mom told him Taylor's nickname is "T Man," and since Taylor was born in '91, that's her favorite number. "So we made the hockey shirt with 'T Man' and '91 on the back. His mom said he wore it to bed that night."

While the response to Taylor has been overwhelmingly gratifying, Make A Child Smile's Alex says many other children on her website continue to need attention, too. Even when a child is too young to understand, the parents benefit from the cards and letters. Alex reads from one mother's e-mail: "There have been so many days that I have been depressed because I feel as though I'm the only one who cares. But then I check Stephen's post office box and start crying with joy, because so many people out there do care and want to reach out and say [they're] thinking of you or send you [their] prayers."