Fire departments CoopStrong at hybrid drill

Baby Cooper Graham is a fighter. Although only in their infancy as a five-month-old, Cooper is on his fourth round of chemotherapy to combat retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer that begins in the back of the eye and causes redness and swelling. On July 1, South Shore fire departments came out to the annual Baldwin Fire Department Tomcats Hybrid Drill, an event aimed at supporting a local in need.

Cooper was on everyone’s mind as firefighters ran ladders, aimed hydrants at targets and donated to a 50/50 raffle, all of which was donated back to the family and reached two thousand dollars.

Michael Graham, Coopers father and a firefighter at Oceanside’s Terrace Hose Company couldn’t attend the event because he had to support Cooper at the Cohen Children’s Medical Center, but said the help of the fire departments, likened to a brotherhood, means more than he can express.

“The fire department is a great service, we’re always helping one another, it’s a niche where you know guys interact, members interact and we have a good relationship, it’s incredible, it’s a second family for us,” Graham said.

The money raised during the event will go towards medical issues that occur in the future, “We don’t know what the future is that (Cooper) may need assistance with and hopefully one day we’ll be able to help other people in need.”

The event came to be when Baldwin Fire Department Chief Brien Cummings and other members contacted Terrace Hose Company Three Captain Kevin Klein and said they were holding the event for Cooper and asked if they’d want to participate. The event was a hit, with eight departments coming out. In the end, the Seaford Inmates team won the day’s events all while supporting the Grahams family.

“I just want to thank the Baldwin Fire Department, the chief’s office, the members in the community for thinking of our son during this difficult time and making it so special for our family to have something like this with his name,” Graham said of how much the event meant to him.

Peter Ortz, former chief and current mechanic at the Baldwin Fire Department said every year the firehouse helps a local in need during their hybrid old fashioned and V-truck tournament. “One year we helped someone with breast cancer, another year we helped Michael Dolan who had lung cancer and this year we did CoopStrong,” he said.

Ortz, who’s been around the department since the age of six said the idea was a little last minute, “We didn’t know what charity (to give to) and big corporate charities don’t give all the money, so we thought holy crap, he’s right in Oceanside, so we let them do the 50/50 and sell T-shirts.”

The department drill team the Tomcats has been around for over 25 years and started hosting the hybrid events within the last eight years. “Drill teams are still really big on Long Island and upstate,” Ortz said, mentioning that there is another event coming up on August 13th at Fireman’s Field on Atlantic Avenue, which is open to public spectators.