Windsor firefighters' calendar raises $15K for Fight Like Mason Foundation

Members of Windsor Fire and Rescue Services present a cheque for $15,000\ to the Fight Like Mason Foundation on Jan. 19, 2018. (Michelle Maluske / CTV Windsor)

Windsor firefighters have come through in a big way for the Fight Like Mason Foundation.

On Friday morning, the firefighters association presented a cheque for $15,000 to the foundation. That is the money raised from the sale of the 2018 firefighters calendar, which included a superhero theme in honour of Mason Macri.

The four-year-old boy, who loved superheroes and firefighters, passed away from cancer in June 2016.

The chairperson of the calendar committee, Dan Sementilli, says they are proud to make this significant contribution.

“When we approached them, we said, you know we're going to come through for you,” remembers Sementilli. “When the fire department puts their mind to something, when we say we're going to do something, we do it.”

This is the first time the Windsor fire departments' calendar had a theme, and Sementilli says it’s also the first time sponsors paid for the entire expense of printing 1,500 calendars.

So every dollar raised will go to the Fight Like Mason Foundation.

“Having our local superhero firefighters honour Mason, in this way, he would be so proud of this,” says Mason’s father Iain Macri. “He would be so excited to see, number one a superhero calendar, with guys he would want to be like.”

The money will go towards childhood cancer research, and also help pay for new superhero IV poles for children at local hospitals.

“Getting a cheque like this, almost brings a tear to my eye that people really believe in what we're trying to do,” adds Macri.