Graduation festivities are in full swing throughout the country as kids prepare to graduate from high school. However, these Long Island high school students were just as ecstatic about their graduation celebration.
However, their commitment to their mission was much stronger, so the celebrations had to be cut short.
Six-Port Jefferson High School students ran to put out a blaze in their school regalia. Their principal chose Ryan Parmegiani, Kasumi Layne-Stasik, Hunter Volpi, Andrew Patterson, Shane Hartig, and Peter Rizzo.
Between the ages of 17 and 18, all six of them are involved in the investigation. Six high school graduates, like many others, were occupied with their graduation celebrations. They had just gone over the stage and were standing with their diplomas for photographs with their families.
Six of the kids who attended the celebrations were also members of the Port Jefferson Fire Department, a volunteer organization. They were notified of a neighboring fire and rushed to put out the flames.
They instantly put aside their plans and made their way to the nearest firehouse. The pupils didn’t even bother to remove their graduation robes before rushing to execute what they had been practicing for as quickly as possible.
“We were still in our gowns, and we still had our diplomas with us and we stripped off our gowns. I didn’t even realize I still had my tie on,” Rizzo, a 17-year-old interviewee, stated.
When the first truck arrived, two pupils were seated, while the other four sat in the ladder truck. Unbeknownst to them, the blaze started at the house of a fellow classmate. Those six students had just celebrated their graduation with the same individual whose home they were now frantically trying to preserve.
The blaze was quickly put out, and no one was hurt.
‘Port Jefferson is a very little village. “Port Jefferson is a very small community. You know that saying, ‘it takes a village?’ This is that place.”
Fire department junior volunteer program members were only 14 years old when they first joined the department, Neubert said.
For a year to a year and a half, the youngsters, according to the fire chief, had been fully trained and certified as volunteer firefighters. “…you don’t know how somebody is going to perform until they’re actually out there doing it,” he said, praising the six youngsters for their performance.
“I’m incredibly proud of them,” he said.
They’ll cherish the memories of their graduation even if it wasn’t exactly as they had pictured it throughout their high school years.
“I got more pictures of me at the fire than I did at graduation. But overall I definitely remember it [as] a cool memory and a cool story to be able to tell people,” said 18-year-old Parmegiani.
This group of adolescents is just incredible! Making the decision to forego their college diplomas in order to serve their community is an admirable one.
This is a great way to spread the word about their incredible courage!
