Tompkins Weekly

Siblings honored for community service



 

 

Groton High School alumni Albert and Geri Lockwood have lived most of their lives in our community and raised their children, Mike Lockwood, GHS 1997 alumnus, and Nicole (Lockwood) Hunt, GHS 2000 alumna, here.

While Albert and Geri have always been proud of Mike and Nicole, that pride rose to an all-time high as both siblings were honored for their community service in 2019, albeit each in different ways.

By day, Mike is the director of informational and instructional technology for the Lansing Central School District, but many in Groton know him best as a coach for youth T-ball, baseball, soccer, softball and basketball over the course of the past 17 years as his and his wife Sarah’s children were growing up.

Mike has also served his community in other ways, but none of these were connected to what led to him being named the 2019 “Firefighter of the Year” at the Groton Fire Department’s (GFD) annual banquet on Saturday, Jan. 18.

In early summer 2018, Mike made the decision to join the GFD as a volunteer firefighter. He started out as an ambulance driver with a vision to train until he could respond to any type of call that came in.

“What I liked the most about deciding to become a firefighter is that you can choose your own path for what you want to do, and I knew I wanted to do it all,” Mike said.

From February to May 2019, Mike took his Basic Exterior Firefighter Operations course and learned everything he could so he could contribute more to help with calls, but he still needed his certification for the Interior Firefighter Operations (IFO) course to enter a burning structure.

After waiting all summer for an IFO course to be run in Tompkins County, Mike was finally able to take it in Cortland in the fall of 2019. Anxiously waiting for the results of his final test, Mike received word on Oct. 24 that he had earned his certification.

This was pivotal for another award presented to him at the GFD banquet for having responded to a devastating structure fire on Old Stage Road on Oct. 25, a mere 12 to 15 hours after becoming fully certified.

Ironically, Mike was not able to personally receive his awards at the GFD banquet, as he got called to a fire right after the meal that evening, so his wife, Sarah, who is also a GFD firefighter, accepted it on his behalf.
Fellow GFD firefighter Rob Gallinger, who presented the award, said of Mike, “he is a selfless server, always ready to help anyone any way he can.”

Just about a month prior to Mike’s award presentation, his sister, Nicole, received the “Real Heroes Medical Award” from the American Red Cross of Central New York at its annual breakfast on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

Since 1999, the American Red Cross of CNY has celebrated the Red Cross mission of alleviating human suffering by hosting the Real Heroes Breakfast to honor central New Yorkers who have performed heroic acts to help others in need.

Nicole is a development aide supervisor for the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, where she has been employed for the past 12 years, working in a group home.

On June 4, 2019, Nicole was working in a home that she was not regularly assigned to but had been to before, so she was familiar with the residents. She said she noticed “a particular resident who was just not acting like himself.”

Nicole said she felt very strongly that she should check the resident’s vital signs before leaving the home, and as she proceeded to do that, he “suddenly went into cardiac arrest.”

As another co-worker called 9-1-1, Nicole single-handedly performed CPR for what she described as “several minutes, but it felt like an hour.” Though she was exhausted, she continued until emergency responders arrived and relieved her, but she was personally relieved that the resident survived and could return to the home.

When Nicole received her award, it was presented to her by a representative of Bristol-Myers Squibb, one of the awards sponsors. She regrets not being able to recall his name because he was instrumental in developing a new drug to aid patients with medullary cystic kidney disease (MCKD), an inherited condition in which cysts in the center of each kidney cause the kidneys to gradually lose their ability to function.

This was a defining moment for Nicole because she was diagnosed with that very disease herself in 2003.

In September 2016, Nicole and her husband, Bob Hunt, were busy raising their two young children when things took a drastic turn for the worse, and Nicole was faced with a desperate need for a kidney transplant.

Nicole’s entire family was tested, but none were a match. A plea went out for a donor with time of the essence, as without this transplant, dialysis would need to commence, but the prognosis was not as favorable with that course of treatment as it would be with the transplant.

After months of waiting, a donor was found, the transplant was successfully made on Jan. 10, 2017, and Nicole’s road to recovery was paved with hope.
Today, Nicole is happy and healthy, Bob joined the GFD as a firefighter about a year ago, and both enjoy their first grandchild very much.

Speaking for himself and his sister, Mike said, “We both love our community and want to give back any way we can.”

Groton on the Inside appears weekly. Submit news ideas to Linda Competillo, lmc10@cornell.edu or 607-227-4922.
In brief:

St. Paddy’s Day dinner

The McLean Community Church, 50 Church St., invites the public to its “St. Paddy’s Day” dinner from 4:30 p.m. until the food is gone Tuesday, March 17.
They will be serving chicken parmesan, ziti, salad, garlic toast, fruit cobbler and beverages for $12 per adult and $6 per child age 6-12. Children 5 and under may eat for free. Takeout dinners will be available.

Spring flower fundraiser

The Groton Community Church is taking orders for spring plants to help bring the beauty of spring to everyone. Lily, tulip, hyacinth or daffodil plants are available for $11 each, with proceeds to benefit the church.
Orders must be in by Monday, March 23 by calling Chris Brown at (607) 898-4612 or Brittany Station at (607) 898-4994. Plants will be ready for pickup at Brittany Station, 152 Main St., on Friday, April 10 or Saturday, April 11.

Instrument donations sought

The Groton Central School District is seeking donations of gently used instruments to help build its library of instruments to help ensure that all children, regardless of whether they have the funds to purchase or rent an instrument, will be able to participate in the school’s music programs.

If anyone has an instrument to donate, which is tax deductible, please stop by the district office, 400 Peru Rd., between 7:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Rotary pancake breakfast

The Groton Rotary Club Pancake Breakfast, to benefit programming for youth at Groton Central School, will be held from 7 to 10 a.m. Saturday, March 14 at Groton Community Health Care, 120 Sykes St. Cost is $5 per person.

The Rotary would also like to remind interested people to save the date for the fourth annual Rotary Golf Tournament on Friday, July 17. More information to come later.

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