SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — A firefighter’s motto is “to serve” others. With the help of his parents, one fallen firefighter in Lackawanna County is still helping his fellow brothers every day on the job.

Stephen Sunday was a Scranton firefighter who died of COVID in 2020.

While he’s been gone for two years, he’s still protecting and serving his community and fire department through new pieces of equipment donated in his name.

“He was a kid with a toy with the joystick because he had to remove the roof and they said he was like surgically removing it and that’s what he wanted to do,” said Gregg Sunday, Stephen’s Father.

He joined the Scranton Fire Department in February 2020 before his life was cut short by COVID-19 complications in December 2020.

“He would do anything in the firehouse, you know if they told him to do this, happily with a smile as you can see with the pictures there’s always a smile on his face,” said Jody Sunday, Stephen’s Mother.

“Any time he could get a shift at rescue one, cause that quote on quote goes to everything. he would take it,” Gregg said.

Stephen was an only child, and his two passions in life were baseball and firefighting.

Since his death, his parents, Jody and Gregg Sunday, have made several donations to the Scranton Fire Department twice a year in Stephen’s name.

“We decided to do the same for the fire department as we would do for him,” said Jody.

Each piece of equipment makes Scranton firefighters a little safer while benefiting the community.

Because of the donations, every firefighter in the Scranton Fire Department has a thermal imaging camera, allowing them to do their job more efficiently in zero visibility conditions.

Another purchase is battery-operated power saws.

Deputy Fire Chief Dan Hallowich says the latest donation made by the Sunday family will help the firefighters with forceable entry.

“Stephen’s name is going to be engraved on it so every firefighter is going to carry his name with them on themselves day in and day out,” said Fire Chief Hallowich.

Hallowich says Stephen established himself early on as a go-getter, and reliable. An example he tells new firefighters to look up to.

“The only silver lining in losing Stephen was that I learned to answer the question, how should a new guy carry himself? When somebody comes to me and says what should I do and how should I act? My answer to them is find out how Stephen carried himself and mimic those actions,” Fire Chief Hallowich said.

Stephen was also an EMT for Commonwealth Ambulance for two years before he took the job as a Scranton Firefighter.

He made a huge impact in his short life of 28 years and continues to do so even after his death.