The parents of a Los Alamitos High School graduate, and a fallen firefighter, were honored by the school district board for donating $40,000 in equipment to the school’s fire technology program through an organization they founded in memory of their son.
The parents of a Los Alamitos High School graduate, and a fallen firefighter, were honored by the school district board for donating $40,000 in equipment to the school’s fire technology program through an organization they founded in memory of their son.
Kevin Woyjeck and 18 other Granite Mountain Hotshots were killed June 20, 2013, northwest of Phoenix in the deadliest wildland firefighting disaster since 1933. Woyjeck, who graduated in 2010 from Los Alamitos High, had joined the elite firefighting corps just three months before the tragedy.
“There is not enough that we can say or do to thank them for their son’s service and for keeping the memory alive,” said Board President Dr. Jeff Barke in presenting Joe and Anna Woyjeck with a certificate of appreciation. The donation of equipment is itself “a wonderful memory, and I hope it will offer you a little bit of peace.”
Joe Woyjeck, a Los Angeles Fire Department captain, said he and his wife “started the Kevin Woyjeck Explorers for Life Assn. right after we lost Kevin. My wife, Anna, said we have to do something; we have to pay it forward.”
The 501(c) 3 non-profit group has raised more than $220,000 in firefighting gear and scholarships, mostly for young women and men, like Kevin, who join fire explorer programs, he said.
“We came back to Los Al High,” Joe Woyjeck said, “because all three of our kids went to McGaugh, McAuliffe, and Los Al. So it was a natural fit” to contribute to the Fire Technology class taught by Steve Erickson, who also is a firefighter.
“We coined a little phrase, ‘Be a hotshot in everything you do,’” Woyjeck said, and the donation to Los Alamitos High is part of their effort to follow that advice.
In 2016, the 405 Freeway between the 22 and 605 Freeways was named the “Hotshot Firefighter Kevin J. Woyjeck Memorial Highway.” A 2017 film, “Only the Brave,” is based on the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots who lost their lives with actor Michael L. McNulty playing Kevin Woyjeck.