Hero Workout

Turning grief into strength in Orange County, the Apopka community coming together for a special memorial workout in honor of fallen firefighter Austin Duran. It's all happening this morning and Fox 35 Esther Bauer is live at the Northwest Recreation Complex. Hey Esther, I know it's hot out there. Hannah, it is and you can see we're actually in teardown mode here at the event. They definitely had to get their workout in early, but it's been incredible seeing so many people in the community come out to honor and remember Austin. Right now we have Austin's dad Mike with us. Mike, this was an incredible event. Everyone's so happy to be here for you personally. How do you feel just seeing this? This is amazing. So this is the fourth year that this has been put on. This is all a part of the 15 days of hope that we do as a foundation. Um I'm just grateful to Andrew race and the community for doing this is a really, really good turnout today is very challenging and I love seeing the community support. What is it meant for you to see people? I'm so sorry for the tragic loss of your son and him being a fallen fallen firefighter. But what does it meant seeing the community honor him and and keep his legacy alive? Well, it means everything because what we do, I mean, even just for my family as a foundation, you know, doing these type of events, you know, as a foundation, you know, training costs money. Uh, so be able to come out here and seeing the community participate in this and, you know, buying tickets to compete in these type of events. Uh, it benefits the fire department, benefiting the fire department to pay for these training classes. Uh, actually in terms, you know, benefits the community. If our firefighters are trained and safe, then they're gonna be able to take those skills and that knowledge, you know, into the community to make sure that they're operating, you know, fully trained and that's going to protect the community as a whole. So seeing the crowd come out here and doing this stuff is just absolutely fantastic for me. And we're right in the middle, you said of the 15 days of hope. So the 15 days of hope is what we do as the foundation. Also was injured on June 30th of 2022 and he passed away on july 15th. So he was in the hospital for 15 days. The 15 days of hope is what we wanted to do is bring back to the community because they really supported my family, you know, with the prayers and Austin, the community support four years ago during this time period was just absolutely amazing. And what we wanted to do as a family and as a foundation and we wanted to bring that equity back into a pocket. We wanted to bring that equity back into the community to show our appreciation for them, how they supported us and we kind of want to support them and bring that appreciation back and get them involved and keep them involved with the legacy of Austin. You know, they supported us and we want to support them and make sure that they're safe as well. Awesome. And also we were mike and I were chatting and we're going to send things back to you. But you said every single fire truck is now with Austin's name. Yeah. So the fire department has just been amazing. So every single station department, every apparatus that they have bears Austin's name. And it's really significant is that, you know, when these guys are responding to calls um and they're climbing into this truck, you know, they see Austin's name. So they take Austin, he's not physically here with us, but he's still here with us. So when they respond to a call or whatever, they're taking Austin with them. So amazing mike, thank you so much sir. And thank you for taking tragedy and turning it into hope. Hannah, it's been an incredible time and you can learn more about this foundation and the work that that they're doing in the community going forward. But Hannah will send things back to you. Fabulous foundation and honor.