LAPORTE -- Ben Eckstein is a runner, a software engineer and a volunteer firefighter. He’s combining two of those to raise money for a great cause this weekend.
Eckstein, 33, and three other Lakeport Fire and Rescue firefighters plan to run in the department’s annual 5-kilometer fundraising event on Saturday morning, July 3. It won’t be difficult to spot the foursome -- they’ll each be wearing up to 60 pounds of firefighting equipment.
“There have been so many struggles this past year with first responders around the world,” Eckstein said. “I wanted to challenge myself and dedicate it to all the people that were challenged this past year in the medical field and first responders.”
He initially set up a GoFundMe site with a goal of raising $200. But after his sister got wind of things, she encouraged Ben to rethink that number.
“She said, ‘You’ve got to make your goal bigger.’”
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He increased the target to $1,000, but as of Thursday morning, $1,400 was already raised. He plans to give half of the final amount to the Lakeport Fire Department and half to the Emergency Medical Responders, who are putting on the event.
“It really humbles me,” Eckstein said, “because I got wild hair ideas and to give just that little bit of money to those two groups. It picked up quite a bit of momentum really quickly. Almost wish I would have thought of the idea sooner.”
Fellow firefighters Justin Lindahl, Elias Carlson and Kasey Kampfer will join Eckstein in full turnout gear.
“I have been preparing for two weeks,” Eckstein said. “I have run two miles now just to see if I could do it. I firmly believe I’ll be able to do it, but there might be some walking in there. I think we should be able to keep moving for the entire 5K. I’ve been looking at the weather every day, and the forecast keeps going up in temperature.”
Eckstein, a senior software engineer at EXB Solutions in Bemidji, graduated from high school in Jordan, Minn., and came up north to attend Bemidji State University, where he met his wife, Theresa. He was a volunteer firefighter in Bemidji for three years before moving outside the department’s coverage range in 2019. That’s when he joined the Lakeport crew.
“These guys who have been doing this for so many years, volunteering, giving back to their community, it’s very inspirational,” he said. “I wanted to come up with some sort of way that I could do a fundraiser, just to give back a little bit to these amazing people that are there all the time.”
