Local firefighter Taylor Von Lohr is set to be featured in the 2023 edition of the American Lung Association’s Fight for Air Climb Firefighter Calendar.
The calendar honors first responders from across the United States, and Von Lohr, an eight-year veteran of the Delaware Fire Department, has been selected as Mr. October.
Von Lohr has participated in the last two Fight for Air Climb events, including the 2021 event held in Delaware and the most recent event held in June at Lower.com Field in Columbus. The annual event is held in over 40 cities across the country.
“It’s a fundraiser for a good organization, and the fact that they get so many firefighters involved, I think is really cool,” Von Lohr told The Gazette. “It’s a cool concept, and it’s fun. Just the fact that it’s a test of your fitness, which is such an important aspect of the job that we do; being able to perform physically. It’s an opportunity to utilize the capabilities we have and we train for while actually getting to do it in the gear we do our work in.”
Von Lohr added that the Lung Association’s mission of preventing respiratory diseases, which are one of the many occupational hazards of the job, also “tugs at the heartstrings” for firefighters and adds to the significance of participating in the events.
As for being featured in the calendar, Von Lohr noted that the fundraising total that accompanies his picture in the calendar represents the work of far more people than just himself.
“It’s more important, obviously,” he said of the fundraising total. “That’s a lot of people donating, and not just the guys that are participating but the people who are choosing to donate and support them. That’s the biggest thing, people just coming together and helping where they can and hopefully reaching people who need it and giving them the help they need. That’s the most important part of all of it. The Fight for Air Climb is more of the fun part of it, getting to come together and have a little bit of fun. But fundraising is obviously the most important work.”
Von Lohr went on to say participating in the events and fundraising goes back to the very reason why he — and most firefighters — ultimately chose the profession as a career.
“Most of the guys who I work with, including myself, chose service as our career because it calls to us,” he said. “Wherever I can provide help, and wherever anybody can provide help, I think is an awesome thing. Those people doing that kind of work who are actually fundraising and spending a lot of their time organizing events like that and whatnot, they’re doing as much service for others as we are as firefighters.”
Brittany Sinzinger, executive director of the Lung Association in Ohio, said of Von Lohr, “We’re so proud of and excited for Taylor for being honored in the 2023 Fight For Air Climb Firefighter Calendar. He truly deserves this recognition. He is not only out there saving lives every day, but he also trains and fundraises for events like the Fight For Air Climb in his free time. We invite other firefighters and first responders in the Delaware area and across Oho to join our Fight For Air Climb to help support our vision of a world free of lung disease.”
To purchase the Fight For Air Climb Firefighter Calendar, visit Lung.org/calendar. To register for the upcoming 2023 Fight For Air Climb at Rhodes Tower in Columbus, visit FightForAirClimb.org/Columbus.
