Meet Tank, a local canine in Collier County receiving national attention for the American Humane Society’s Hero Dog Awards.
Tank is being recognized for supporting first responders in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian and educating children on important fire safety tips.
Tank has no special training or certifications, but he has been a productive and essential member of the North Collier Fire and Rescue family ever since he reported for duty in September of 2021 at just 10 weeks old.
Tank started as an animated character in fire safety videos, providing whimsical thought bubbles and silly sounds to help children relax when learning about stressful topics. The videos were made to teach fire safety to kids from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As an animated character, Tank helped keep kids engaged and was an entertaining part of fire safety education. But when North Collier Fire got the chance to revisit schools, Heather Mazurkiewicz said everything began to change.
“When we returned to schools, we made a special video for a tour of our ladder trucks,” said Mazurkiewicz, Tank’s owner, co-handler and the public information and education officer for North Collier Fire. “When the kids came out, they got to meet the real firefighters, and some of them asked the question, ‘Where is the real Tank?’”
Heather and the team weren’t prepared for an answer. Conversations began amongst the team about how cool it would be if they could find a dog that looked just like Tank from the cartoon. In July 2021, the Gulf Coast Humane Society put out a picture of a dog named Timothy looking for a foster home at just a few weeks old.
“We sat down as a group, looked at him, and said, ‘This would be great, absolutely, we’ll never find another dog who looks just like this,’ so I showed our Fire Chief Eloy Ricardo," Mazurkiewicz said. "And he said to go for it,”
About a year after Tank began working for NCFR, Hurricane Ian hit Southwest Florida. First responders worked day and night in search and rescue efforts, many of them dealing with their struggles with the storm’s damage and the friends, family members and neighbors who had lost homes or even their lives.
During natural disasters like Ian, Mazurkiewicz is assigned to the emergency operations center, and Tank comes with her.
“Every single time a crew came through the doors, Tank was right there to greet them,” Mazurkiewicz said, “I still have a very vivid picture of one of our guys, who has since retired, was on the phone with his wife who was having a hard time at their house. She had just watched some of their personal belongings literally wash away, and the firefighter has got the phone in one hand, and he's petting Tank in with the other.”
No one at NCFR had anticipated Tank's impact on the entire crew, and Mazurkiewicz says that is just one of many ways Tank continues to help the community.
Every week, Tank visits schools and groups all over Collier County to teach kids ages Pre-K to 4th grade about fire safety, making what can be a scary topic a fun and educational experience for kids at school.
Efrain Hernandez, the animator of the cartoon “Frank and Tank” and a former Collier County Sheriff’s Deputy, has always had a passion for animation and spoke about how fulfilling it has been to be able to channel his love for art into an educational tool for the children of Collier County.
“The first day that I saw the kids watching the episode and I'm sitting in the back to watch their expressions, laughing and engaging. That's the Academy Award to me because it's for the kids,” Hernandez said. He is currently the media specialist for North Collier Fire and Rescue.
According to Mazurkiewicz, Frank and Tank the cartoon has proven to be an effective way to deliver this kind of important information to kids of younger ages. While in the studio at WGCU, Mazurkiewicz and Hernandez announced a new character being added to the cast.
His name is S. Miles, but you can call him Medic Smiles. He will bring a medical education component to the Frank and Tank cartoon. Medic Smiles will be a new way for kids to learn how to respond to medical emergencies, making everyone’s household a little bit safer.
The emerging hero and shelter dog category, for which Tank is a semi-finalist, is meant to highlight everyday dogs like Tank with an underdog story that has uniquely aided their household or community. Georgia Boyer, CCO for the American Humane Society, said while we must give recognition to our special canine companions, this award is also meant to recognize the owners of these dogs for the care they provide
“One of our main pieces of (focus at) American Humane is it's all about that human-animal bond,” Boyer said, “You need humans advocating for these animals because they don't have a voice. In theory, we recognize both, though (at American Humane) we call this ‘the Oscars for canines.’ These dogs would never get recognized if it wasn’t for their handlers.”
Voting for the Hero Dog Awards is live now until October 9 at https://www.herodogawards.org/search?s=Tank You can vote once a day, every day, in support of Tank and the NCFR family that cares for him.
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