A recent graduate of the Howell Public Schools Fire Academy has been awarded a scholarship.
Izzy Militello earned the Brighton Area Firefighters Association (BAFFA) Fred Gillespie Scholarship, which honors a long time member of the Brighton City Fire Department, Howell Fire Department, and Livingston County EMS.
According to the Brighton Area Fire Authority, Fred Gillespie also played a very important role in restoring and preserving the department’s 1937 GMC open cab pumper, which was the first brand new piece of apparatus that Brighton was able to purchase, and is now a treasured piece of their history. Gillespie is also said to have played a very important role in all three of those organizations, and embodied what a true first responder is.
After Gillespie passed in 2010, his family approached the department and wanted to make a donation in his name. The fire authority says it was with great honor that they were able to create the scholarship so his name can live on by giving young individuals the chance to achieve further education and give back to their community.
The $1000 scholarship is awarded to a single student that lives in or around the Brighton Area Fire Authority response area and is pursuing a degree in either Fire Services, Criminal Justice, Emergency Medical Services or Emergency Management.
Militello is a 2023 graduate of Brighton High School. She also graduated June 5th from the Howell Public Schools Fire Academy, which is based at BAFA’s Dorr Road fire station.
“Public safety is one of the most rewarding fields you can work in, helping people during one of the worst times in their lives and assisting them through it is a true sense of accomplishment to mankind,” said former BAFFA President Greg Mowbray. “With this scholarship, we are setting the ground work and giving that young individual the chance of greatness, much like Fred Gillespie provided during his long career.”
