BUCHANAN, Mich – The people that live in the City of Buchanan are helped to lift up one of their fellow neighbors.

The Buchanan City Fire Department held a benefit dinner Fireman John Rydwelski who’s life changed after suffering a stroke.

“Everything has changed a lot, going to school and having to take siblings to school, going back and forth making sure he’s okay, its been difficult. Not having a fatherly figure for a month  I’ve been cautious and realized how fortunate I am,” said Grace Rydwelski, the daughter of John Rydwelski said.

Throughout the struggle the community rallied behind the Rydwelski family.

“It just shows how much we come together, to work together for something bad that happened,” said Grace Rydwelski said.

The goal of the dinner was to raise money to help the family, but everyone's focus  was on getting John Rydwelski healthy again and back to work

"There's a lot of places that you can be in the fire department, run trucks, drive the trucks, run the pumps, man the radio, so even if we bring him back on a limited basis in the next six months that would be awesome," said Assistant Fire Chief Bobby Blaylock said.