CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- Friends, family, and fellow firefighters are paying tribute to a Chesterfield Fire Captain who lost his life nearly one year ago.
Cpt. Jason Ware — a 20-year veteran of the Chesterfield Fire Department — lost his life after another driver crossed over a yellow line the morning of August 11, 2023, striking Ware's vehicle head-on. Ware was on his way to work at Chesterfield Fire Station 1 in Chester.
“A special, special guy," said Kenny Mitchell, a retired Chesterfield firefighter who was close with Ware over their decade-plus working together.
Mitchell said getting the call about what happened to Ware stunned him.
“I went and sat on my porch from 6:30 a.m. until about 11:30 a.m. until I got the nerve up to go to Company One to figure out what was going on. It just struck me like lightning, to be honest. I hate to sound dramatic, but he and I had spoken — I got it on my phone still — nine hours before he was killed. It's going to be very, very hard," he said of the anniversary Sunday.
Remembered within the fire department as a caring, passionate leader, Mitchell said Ware cared deeply for the community he served for a large portion of his fire career: Chester — particularly when he got to meet with folks in the community.
"You’d be shocked at the houses we’d go to, and four or five weeks earlier, they were at the station doing a tour, and now they're having a medical problem or a fire problem. That's what he loved about serving the community," Mitchell said.
On Saturday, Mitchell, along with many other friends and colleagues, will honor Ware with a memorial walk and event starting at 10 a.m. at Three Leg Run Brewery in Chester.
They plan to meet in the parking lot at 4418 W Hundred Rd in Chester and then walk into the neighborhood Ware would regularly run in during his time serving at Fire Station 1.
Proceeds from the lunch event that follows will be donated to Ware's family — his two daughters and wife, who Mitchell said plans to attend.
"We're going to go right behind here, where he used to love to run and jog, and we're going to walk and run and jog and talk, and there will be some tears and some smiles and some hugs. We're going to come back here to a three-leg run. We're going to have some lunch. Proceeds go towards the family, and we're just going to try to smile and remember him," Mitchell said.
Part of smiling during moments like this — Mitchell said — is about being together through the hurt.
“When you get together with people who have been through hard things, you get stronger," Mitchell said. "I want people to leave this event not only knowing about Jason and the kind of man he was, I want them to know there's people in their corner now, inner circle, people who they didn't know before this they can call them when life gets hard," he said.
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