A June 2023 fall at home left Jaxson Lutz with a broken femur and complications that have delayed his recovery.
This fall, the 15-year-old is back at Nazareth Area High School as a sophomore — using crutches to get around and getting used to his new artificial right hip.
The new joint means his days of youth sports are behind him, according to his mother, Stacee Banko, who reached out to lehighvalleylive.com to share Jaxson’s story.
But through all he’s faced in the past two years, he’s found a new calling as a junior member of the Bethlehem Township Volunteer Fire Co.
“They took him in and taught him so many skills,” Banko wrote in an email. “He has volunteered at so many events with them and has enjoyed learning new things and meeting new people.”
Last month, the fire company organized a way to welcome Jaxson just a few weeks after his July 30 joint replacement surgery at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest.
On Aug. 18, the fire company rolled into Banko’s Northeast Bethlehem neighborhood — his father, Mike Lutz, lives in the Nazareth Area — in a lights-and-sirens show of support for Jaxson.
“It was such a wonderful gesture on their part,” Banko wrote. “It meant so much to him. It was a smile we haven’t seen for awhile.
“There was a huge turnout of members,” she continued, calling the visit “such a kind and generous act on their part.”
“While he felt included there in a short time, this solidified how happy he is to have given firefighting a try,” Banko said. “These individuals gave up their time to come and show support to Jaxson. This is a memory and act of kindness we will never forget.”
Amid a difficult recovery due to complications of a broken femur, 15-year-old Jaxson Lutz, of Bethlehem, joined the Bethlehem Township Volunteer Fire Co. as a junior member.Photo courtesy Stacee Banko | For lehighvalleylive.com
Bethlehem Township Volunteer Fire Co. welcomes junior members at age 14, with no prior experience necessary. They can advance to an active adult member at age 18 at the fire company that offers the chance to serve the community — along with live-in quarters featuring a kitchen and showers, meeting rooms, training rooms and lounges to relax.
Bethlehem Township Volunteer Fire Co. Chief C.J. Kuronya got the ball rolling on the August visit, which also included bringing Jaxson a care package with some of this favorite snacks.
Jaxson has been very involved with the fire company since joining in 2024, Kuronya told lehighvalleylive.com, including attending training held weekly on Monday night.
“Just knowing that he had gone from being a very active young man to having to have a pretty serious surgery like this and knowing that there was recovery time, we wanted to do something that we thought would lift his spirits,” Kuronya said. “So I had been in contact with his mom and I brought up the idea of, ‘Hey, Jaxson can’t come to the firehouse right now, but what if we bring the firehouse to him?’”
Several volunteer firefighters aboard two firetrucks joined Kuronya for the visit, held during a Monday night training.
“Something like that is the least that we can do based off of the time that he gives us and our organization and the hard work that he puts in,” he said.
Jaxson was drawn to firefighting, in part, through the experience of Banko’s brother-in-law Kevin Lambert and his son, Nathaniel Lambert, who are firefighters with Lower Nazareth Township’s Hecktown Volunteer Fire Co. The younger Lambert is studying emergency medical services at Millersville University, as well.
The Bethlehem Township Volunteer Fire Co. in August 2025 visits Jaxson Lutz at his Bethlehem home, as he recovers from hip-replacement surgery.Photo courtesy Stacee Banko | For lehighvalleylive.com
Starting down the road to becoming a firefighter has given Jaxson a challenge and purpose after rehabilitation from his initial injury kept pushing back his return to sports he loved: football, basketball and volleyball.
The recovery was taking longer than it should have, Banko said, when an X-ray showed Jaxson was suffering from avascular necrosis. This is the death of bone tissue due to a lack of blood supply. His medical team tried injections and, during one of some six surgeries he’s faced, inserting more screws to restore his bone health.
“I always describe it as we tried every band-aid and we ran out of options, and so they had to do the whole total hip replacement,” Banko said in an interview.
At that point, every step was an eight on a pain scale of one to 10, said Banko, who works as an education coordinator at a local elementary school.
Two weeks after the replacement surgery, Jaxson already noticed a difference, with walking feeling much more smooth — and pain-free, Banko said.
“I mean, he has pain from surgery, but he said, ‘It’s a whole new world,’” she said.
Jaxson is looking forward to taking on more duties with the fire company as his recovery and age allow.
“We’re very proud,” Banko said.
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Kurt Bresswein may be reached at kbresswein@lehighvalleylive.com.
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