JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The mother of a fallen Jacksonville firefighter is keeping her son’s legacy alive while offering a helping hand to the next generation.
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“I felt like this is the perfect opportunity for us to come together again as a community, not only to celebrate Mike [Freeland’s] life,” Terona Feacher said about her son. “But to also give back to what we can do here for the community with our young people.”
Feacher is using a 5K run and walk to make a difference in addition to honoring her son, Mike Freeland, who died while on duty with JFRD in 2021.
“He always just made people smile around him,” Feacher said about Mike. “He was full of love, life and laughter.”
The first race she is organizing will start and finish outside this Winston Family YMCA at 221 Riverside Avenue on November 15.
Feacher says it is a way to raise money to fund scholarships for students interested in going to a firefighter school or academy.
“Or any type of vocation training just to do something to get ahead in life,” she said. “[Mike’s] life was sacrificed for the life of another, but we come together and celebrate our first responders for the people that they are.”
Freeland died while on duty in November 2021 from a brain aneurysm. At the time, he was rescuing a driver who had crashed into a utility pole.
Freeland served with JFRD as an engineer for seven years. He was 36 years old.
Freeland is remembered as an easy-going guy, and pretty funny.
His mother watches videos and scrolls through pictures saved on her phone that she has saved with Freeland in them to keep those memories alive.
Feacher also cherishes the pictures she and her son took together.
That includes one photo taken the day before his death.
“He had a way of making little jingles and singing,” Feacher said. “Just looking at him, smiling, and dancing a little bit and doing his thing. It just brought a smile to my face because he was always a happy person.”
The Inaugural 5K and fun run is scheduled for Saturday-- November 15 starting at 8:30 a.m. at the Winston Family YMCA on Riverside Avenue.
Feacher said her hope is to raise at least at least $10,000 scholarships.
Click here to donate and register for the 5K.
All the money is sent to the Michael Freeland Foundation.