After 13 weeks of training at the EMS Academy, 147 new FDNY EMTs graduated today along with 40 U.S. service members.

FDNY EMTs were at the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Among the graduating class was one of the young men who was the first to respond to the mass shooting inside the 36th Street subway shooting in Sunset Park. Another one of the graduates, Joe Downey, lost his grandfather on 9/11 and follows in the footsteps of his father and uncle. 

The graduating class presented the families of NYPD detectives Jason Rivera and Wilbert Mora with a check for more than $14,000 that they had raised.

The FDNY livestreamed the event on its Twitter feed: