Greg Lyczkowski has the two greatest jobs in the world, firefighter and dad. He became a firefighter with Macomb Township, MI, five years ago, starting as a paid-on-call member before joining the department on a full-time basis a year later. That is also when the first of his two young sons was born.
As with most fire departments, Lyczkowski’s crew spends a lot of time connecting with the community and heading to schools in September and October for Fire Prevention Month. The combination of those trips and becoming a new dad inspired Lyczkowski to try something new.
“Being in the fire service, we read/hear a lot more than the average person on fire-related injuries and death,” Lyczkowski says. “When children are involved, it always seems to sting a little worse. Preventing this is why we do what we do.”
Shortly after teaching his first fire safety course, and having two young ones at home, Lyczkowski had the idea to write a book for preschoolers.
“My wife and I read books to our children every night before bedtime,” he says. “The idea was to write a fire safety book for children so they could begin to understand and memorize the concepts as young as possible.”
Lyczkowski wrote his ideas down but needed someone to illustrate his thoughts. He reached out to his mom, who has an extensive art background, but life kept getting in the way and they just couldn’t find the time to get it done. He contacted some other artist friends, but something always got in the way. Soon, two years had gone by, and it felt like the finished product would never happen. After hearing of a loss at a local fire involving children, he knew he couldn’t give up.
“I researched some creative websites and found an illustrator named Camille Porzio, who did an amazing job bringing my thoughts to fruition,” Lyczkowski says. “She was great throughout the entire process. I had never written a book before, much less had one illustrated. I was learning on the fly. Camille filled in all the gaps, and even pushed me to finish when life started getting in the way again.”
The result is “Cal Learns: Fire Safety,” a children’s book aimed at the 2- to 4-year-old age group. The name “Cal” came about by playing with the initials from his boys’ names.
“They were my inspiration, it only seemed fitting to somehow include them,” he says.
When asked why he targeted preschoolers, aside from having kids of his own that age, Lyczkowski said he wanted to children to enjoy the book and learn something that could help them one day.
“If doing this can prevent one injury in the future, it was all worth it,” he says. “And I hope parents can learn from the book as well. For example, until I joined the fire service, I always slept with the bedroom door open. Closing your door alone could be a game changer if there is a fire. I believe the best way to avoid disaster is to prevent it from happening.”
Cal Learns Fire Safety is available online in print and ebook formats at most major retail websites.
