{"id":277747,"date":"2025-10-04T18:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T18:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277747\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T18:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T18:31:09","slug":"mother-of-fallen-jfrd-engineer-planning-5k-run-walk-to-give-scholarships-to-future-firefighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/277747\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother of fallen JFRD engineer planning 5K run\/walk to give scholarships to future firefighters"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. <\/strong> \u2013 The mother of a fallen Jacksonville firefighter<\/a> is keeping her son\u2019s legacy alive while offering a helping hand to the next generation. <\/p>\n

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.
\nFreeland served with JFRD as an engineer for seven years. He was 36 years old. (Photo Courtesy: Terona Feacher)<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like this is the perfect opportunity for us to come together again as a community, not only to celebrate Mike [Freeland\u2019s] life,\u201d Terona Feacher said about her son. \u201cBut to also give back to what we can do here for the community with our young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Terona 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. (Photo Courtesy: Terona Feacher)<\/p>\n

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.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe always just made people smile around him,\u201d Feacher said about Mike. \u201cHe was full of love, life and laughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first race she is organizing will start and finish outside this Winston Family YMCA at 221 Riverside Avenue on November 15.<\/p>\n

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.
\nFreeland served with JFRD as an engineer for seven years. He was 36 years old. (Photo Courtesy: Terona Feacher)<\/p>\n

Feacher says it is a way to raise money<\/a> to fund scholarships for students interested in going to a firefighter school or academy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr any type of vocation training just to do something to get ahead in life,\u201d she said. \u201c[Mike\u2019s] life was sacrificed for the life of another, but we come together and celebrate our first responders for the people that they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.
\nFreeland served with JFRD as an engineer for seven years. He was 36 years old. (Photo Courtesy: Terona Feacher)<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Freeland served with JFRD as an engineer for seven years. He was 36 years old. (Photo Courtesy: Terona Feacher)<\/p>\n

Freeland served with JFRD as an engineer for seven years. He was 36 years old. <\/p>\n

Freeland is remembered as an easy-going guy, and pretty funny.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Feacher also cherishes the pictures she and her son took together.<\/p>\n

Feacher also cherishes the pictures she and her son took together. (Photo Courtesy: Terona Feacher)<\/p>\n

That includes one photo taken the day before his death.<\/p>\n

Terona Feacher and Mike Freeland took this picture the day before Freeland died in November 2021 (Photo Courtesy: Terona Feacher)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had a way of making little jingles and singing,\u201d Feacher said. \u201cJust 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

Feacher said her hope is to raise at least at least $10,000 scholarships. <\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to donate and register for the 5K. <\/p>\n

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. (Photo Courtesy: Terona Feacher)<\/p>\n

All the money is sent to the Michael Freeland Foundation. <\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 The mother of a fallen Jacksonville firefighter is keeping her son\u2019s legacy alive while offering…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":277748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,12179,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-277747","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-jfrd","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115317328219107992","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}