Lieutenant Michael A. Moon
Lieutenant Michael A. Moon is the recipient of the 2023 Kenneth E. McNary Award...
The Kenneth E McNary award was created by our departed brother Steve Wright in February of 1990 to celebrate Ken’s 60th year of active service to the Elsmere Fire Company. When Ken passed away on July 9th, 2006, he left this earth after serving his community and country, for an amazing 73 years of active service. In his honor this award is presented annually to an individual whose performance best exemplifies the characteristics of Dedication, Professionalism, and Concern for fellow firefighters as well as maintaining the spirit of the Elsmere Fire Company by exhibiting a high level of commitment to the Fire Company and Community.
Our recipient this year is more involved in our community than could be imagined, and each of these community activities have had an unbelievable impact on the Elsmere Fire Company. He always stresses to our members that every touch of the community, every child we talk with, and every senior citizen we meet is an opportunity to educate and make their life better. He believes that when one of our residents is having a bad day, we can help make their life better, and ultimately, we are making our own lives better by twofold. He NEVER lets the Company miss out on an opportunity to educate and to market Elsmere Fire in the community. On one occasion, our department was suddenly scheduled to attending a funeral, but he still found the time to assemble a crew and fulfill a previous commitment made to one of our neighboring businesses. He prides himself on fire prevention details and other neighborhood events. He makes certain that Neighbors are always welcome into the fire station, and firmly believes that the fire station is more of a community meeting place than a garage for vehicles.
This year’s recipient has continually grown and developed into an extremely valuable asset and resource for the Elsmere Fire Company and his entire community. He was born to be a firefighter. He became an active member of our Department on March 25th, 2004. Quickly becoming involved in the Fire Company by being elected Lay Chaplain on December 9th, 2004. He was then re-elected as Lay Chaplain in 2006. By May of 2007 he was a Kevin M. Shea Award Recipient, one of our youngest recipients to receive this honor, and by December 2006 he was elected 3rd Lieutenant. Since that time, this year's recipient continued to rise through the ranks and has been 1st Lieutenant since 2017.
As previously stated, this award is given to an individual who best exemplifies dedication, professionalism and concern for fellow firefighters as well as exhibiting a high commitment to the Fire Company and Community. Let us first speak on his dedication. Webster defines the word dedication as “the quality of being dedicated or committed to a task or purpose.” Our recipient personifies this definition! He is dedicated beyond belief. And it helps that he is extremely competitive and proud of his department. He consistently is one of our top responders not only in our district, but in the town of Bethlehem. One might think he is a paid firefighter, but in fact he is simply proud of his fire company and would rather die than ever let a call roll. Even if he is on an important work conference call, he will mute the phone and rush to assist his neighbor in need. On one particular fire call, after a tree fire was extinguished and the scene was secure, he had his driver turn off the engine for a few minutes so he could answer a work question. He never missed a beat! And if you were to ask him what that important work call was about, he would tell you that he does not remember, but he never forgets the details of each call he is on and finds every opportunity to use them as teaching moments at his drills. He dedicates countless hours to developing and implementing training for the department and new fire fighters. He loves mentoring to as many firefighters as he can along the way. Usually, the Chief will assign a big brother to one of our new members, but for some reason, this individual holds the record for being a big brother to more members than anyone else. He prides himself on being “first due” whenever possible and making sure that everyone is prepared for the job at hand. He leads by example and keeps the safety of his crew at the forefront.
In regards to professionalism and concern for fellow firefighters, this year's recipient keeps up to date with the latest advancements in firefighting technology, and makes sure the department is aware of the risk’s involved in our undertakings; including, for instance, by regularly warning us about using our “cancer wipes” after each tower fire. He meticulously plans his drills, teaches our members, and warns us all how to do the job in the safest manner possible. Like a few other members in our department, this year’s recipient is not shy, and loves to share his knowledge and skills with his fellow firefighters. He like redundancy and ensures his message is delivered at each drill, even if he must go until 10:00pm for some drills. Recently he was ending his drills by going into details about LODD’s and what we can do to avoid them while doing the job we all love so much to do. He understands well that the most important thing we can do after a call is to return to our families and loved ones, and he does everything possible to ensure that we do.
To say that our recipient is competitive is clearly an understatement. Unless he is first, he is not satisfied with himself. This skill was developed as a youngster playing sports. He learned that winning is not everything, it’s the only thing, and he has carried that philosophy into his professional and firefighting career. And although he may be last to arrive at a meeting, or an appointment, he likes to be the first to get an engine out, the first to put a fire out, the first to mention that he has 8 interiors in route in his apparatus, and definitely to be the first-place team for inspection each year. He even tries to help the other teams by pointing out what they missed and why they will not beat him.
Lastly, exhibiting a high level of commitment to the Fire Company and Community. Our recipient was the chair of the 100th Anniversary Committee, is on the 24 Ridge Road Committee, the Communications and Public Awareness Committee, the Members Room Committee, the Recruitment and Retention Committee, consistently assists with our fish fry’s and is going to be taking over the Explorer’s this year. Usually if there is something going on, our recipient is involved.
It is without question that this year's recipient of the Kenneth E McNary Achievement Award embodies the dedication, professionalism, concern for fellow firefighters and commitment to the company that this prestigious award honors. I know you will agree that he is more than deserving. It is my pronounced privilege and honor to present this award to this distinct member; ladies and gentlemen, please join me in honoring Lieutenant Mike Moon as this year’s recipient.