Jon Ellsworth and Zack Farver have been friends since High School (Pal-Mac, Class of 1995). Both love hunting and community service. Both became firefighters in their communities, and that is where the bond grew closer.
Jon, a former Wayne County resident (Palmyra and Walworth) who now lives in the remote Smokey Mountains of East Tennessee, only recently became a volunteer firefighter in his rural department. He joined as a result of wanting to serve his community after a near fatal car crash that he and his wife endured in late 2021. After they recovered, he decided to join the department to give back to his community.
Jon’s lifelong friend, Zack Farver Sr. is a volunteer with South Macedon Fire Department and lives in Macedon still. He is a disabled Army veteran doing the best he can to serve still.
Zack joined his department - South Macedon FD as a way to continue to serve his community, after serving his Country in the US Army for 10 years. Serving overseas, he faced an injury which essentially retired him.
Jon said that he often returns to upstate to hunt for turkey and deer and meets up with his friend.
Recently, in conversation, Jon shared with Zack how his rural county, state and town are lovely places, but the very poor. He believes the average 4 person family makes $38,000 a year. Their fire departments are strained, both with a lack of volunteers and fiscal resources. Their gear is some cases is either outdated or near out of date. A set of turnout gear (the jacket, pants and boots) goes for $5,000 now. And they have dates that expire. In a department that gets $30,000 a year for funding it’s very thin on resources. They pay for insurance, fuel, maintenance, heat, electric and water bills.
Those conversations led to Zack asking his buddy, “What do you guys need?” Zack actually runs the property room at his department and so Jon started to tell him what they were short of. Zack talked with the Chief and the President of the board aat South Macedon nd they held a vote to help - to essentially adopt the Lakeview Volunteer Fire Department in Mooresburg, TN as a brother department.
Jon will be in town soon to attend their 30th Pal-Mac class reunion and meet with South Macedon FD to thank them for their efforts.
Jon’s 14 year old son will be joining as a junior member soon, in New York. Zack was awarded “firefighter of the year” a couple of weeks ago at the South Macedon FD annual banquet.
Jon pondered the result of his original conversation with this friend and the wonderful outcome. “This is just something that, in this dark world we live in, is a shining ray of something wonderful...people helping people.”
