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Rangeley twins get epic ride to school in fire truck

Gabe and Jared, twin 10th-graders at Rangeley Lakes Regional School, didn't take the bus for their last day of school. They took the fire truck.

RANGELEY, Maine — For two 10th-graders in Rangeley, the ride to school on this year's last day wasn't just another morning on the bus. Instead, they got there in style, sirens and all.

Gabe and Jared Richard are identical twins in the life skills program at Rangeley Lakes Regional School, or RSU 78. Each morning and afternoon they take the bus to and from school, located about a half-mile from home.

Known in the community as the "sunshine boys," the two teenagers, who were born with Down syndrome, regularly contribute in helping the town of 1,100 be a better place. From shoveling snow at the Rangeley History Museum to maintaining trails to recycling at the school, they take pride in where they're from.

"Rangeley is a great place for them to be able to be apart of a community of giving, caring folks who look after each other," said the twins' mother, Faith.

Gabe and Jared are big fans of the Rangeley Fire Department, and have visited the station on a few occasions. So on Tuesday, when a fire truck showed up to their house to pick them up for school, they were completely surprised.

The idea started at a Parent Teacher Association (PTA) auction at Moose Alley bowling alley, where the fire department had donated the experience of riding on a fire truck. The winning bidder? Sherry Haley, the boys' bus driver.

"[She knew] right away she wanted it for the twins," Richard said.

Haley reached out to Rangeley's fire chief, Mike Bacon, and together they coordinated an effort for the boys to be picked up after she went by in the bus.

"The twins had no idea this was going to happen," Richard said, "so when the bus went by and didn’t stop, I said to them, 'oh no, how ya getting to school?'"

Then, along it came. Gabe and Jared were about to ride to school in a fire truck.

After boarding Engine No. 3 and buckling their seat belts, they were on their way to RLRS with the sirens on. Chief Bacon was driving.

When they got to the school, Rangeley Police Chief Russell French was there to meet them along with a host of others. Gabe and Jared smiled and gave the thumbs up, and one shared a hug with Chief French, thanking him.

Certainly a moment the twins will never forget.

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