BELOIT, Wis. — Even as he packed up his bedroom at Beloit Fire headquarters, the reality of Captain Mike Rosario’s last night on the job Thursday, for him hadn’t quite sunk in just yet.
After thirty years of service to the Beloit community Rosario said it was time to retire and say goodbye. His team, though not quite ready to let him go, made sure he had a proper send off.
“I think when it’s going to settle in is three days from now when I [would normally] have to come back and it won’t be my job to come back anymore,” Rosario said. “A lot of it is you know this place has really been like a family to me.”
The now husband and father of two, started with the department when he was just 22-years-old. He said at the time most of his peers were old enough to be his father so in the beginning he simply did what he was told and followed their lead.
In the last few years people have been following his lead as he took what he calls a servant leadership approach.
“I don’t put a lot of pressure on the guys that I work with,” Rosario said. “If I can protect and serve the people that I work with, then that translates to the people that they’re serving.”
For Rosario that support went both ways. When their captain was battling kidney failure, for months, his firefighters took turns driving him back and forth for dialysis appointments. Rosario said without the help of his team, and undoubtedly his brother’s kidney donation in 2008, he probably wouldn’t have been around for so long.
“We all do that because it’s for Rosie,” said Lt. Matt Ahrens. “When you start talking about the fire department family it’s an extension of our family from home.”
Ahrens has worked with Rosario for the past 19-years. He said coming to work without him wouldn’t be the same because the captain was responsible for training practically every person at the station in one way or another.
“He was one of the biggest reasons that I became an officer here,” Ahrens added. “I had a tough go around the first time and he pulled me aside and mentored me completely.”
On Thursday Rosario’s team made sure to take care of him one more time with a meal in his honor. For his last supper at Beloit fire headquarters, Rookie John Ziolek took charge as cook with a menu of twice baked mashed potatoes, shrimp, salad, and special occasion steak.
At shift end, Rosario said he’ll be going home with a full stomach, a career full of highs and lows and memories with coworkers turned family.
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