ABILENE, Texas (KRBC/KTAB) – An otherwise normal school day for Elijah Ortega quickly turned into a day he and his classmates won’t soon forget.
“It was a big surprise when I saw my family,” Ortega said. “I got inside here, drove off and waved to the fourth grade.”
His mom, Marina Ortega says it all started after a day of school when her son told his classmates his dad was a firefighter.
“I asked him, ‘What’s wrong?’ He was like, ‘Well I’m really proud of my daddy, and I was telling my friend that he was part of the fire department and they didn’t believe me,'” she said.
But for Elijah, getting teased by schoolmates isn’t new.
“He was still kind of small for his age, so he got teased for being small,” she said.
Just kids being kids. His dad, the captain of the Roscoe Volunteer Fire Department, went to the chief and rest of the crew to ask for a favor.
“His dad was like, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do. I’ll ask and see if we can get the fire department to take some of our trucks up there and pick you up from school,'” he said.
And the response was unanimous.
“Thought it would be a good idea. It was a good boost of confidence for him. I mean, we’re all a family here,” he said.
Because being a volunteer fire fighter doesn’t always mean fighting fires.
“Just doing anything for your community. Anything that gets brought up, it’s all about helping each other,” he said.
Elijah’s mom said his day improved heavily after yesterday when nobody could say his dad wasn’t firefighter.
