Piper Johnson is the daughter of a current Fire and Rescue NSW Firefighter and Station Officer, and granddaughter of a former Firefighter from the 1960’s and 1970’s. Piper is a Year 8 student, was Vice Captain of her primary school, and is now a first-Degree Black Belt in Taekwondo.
Having been born into an emergency service family, Piper knows the physical, emotional, and mental strength it takes for loved ones to serve our community and what is required from their families to support them to be heroes. Families are the unsung heroes.
Piper is the creator of a concept known as ESKies, standing for Emergency Services Kiddies. She introduced this concept during a Year 6 school speech competition that involved addressing social justice issues that affected the community.
Growing up as an ESKie, she felt alone, being the only one in her close friend group with a family member who was an Emergency Service worker and having to deal with the everyday routines that can be difficult for some children. Piper’s experiences inspired her to write the speech, to be presented to her year group during lockdown to express the different life she had compared to most other students. The speech then got passed on to Fortem Australia, and Piper has been a very enthusiastic Family Ambassador with Fortem ever since.
By joining our Ambassador team, Piper hopes to raise awareness and encourage a support network for all children of Emergency Service Kiddies that wasn’t available to her when she was younger. ESKies should allow kids to share how they feel with each other when their parent(s) go to work, if they are a little late home or if they come home tired or injured. Piper is also hoping it opens conversations within the family unit and provides them comfort knowing there are other unique and extraordinary families like theirs. Seeing her Dad and his fellow frontline workers achieve so much and be recognised for all the hard work they do, has been part of her inspiration to one day work in the healthcare system, assisting those on the frontline and changing lives.
Piper’s goals are to achieve regular interaction through Fortem and their associated connections, with an open forum or social platform where ESKies get to have a voice about their own experiences. Piper also hopes the ESKies concept and the importance of the children of emergency service workers resonates with all.