A member of the family
By Cathy Brauner/ Wellesley (MA) Townsman Staff
Thursday, July 28, 2005

Tim Boyce will never be an official member of the Wellesley Fire Department, but few people inside or outside the station can match his passion for the firefighting life.
 

His parents have been bringing him to the fire station since he was a small child - he had his birthday party there when he was 4 - and now, at 18, he is one of the guys. He owns firemen's boots and helmets, gifts from people who know how fascinated he is with everything associated with the fire department, and reads a firefighting magazine.

When the fire department has open houses, Boyce is there to lend a hand, and each year, he volunteers at the camp the fire department runs for middle school-age kids.
 

 Last Friday, on the last day of camp, as the campers ate their lunch in one room and the firefighters chowed down next door, Boyce swung between the two groups, joking with everyone.
 

 His outgoing persona - his "cocktail party personality," as his mother, Kathy Boyce, describes it - is characteristic of those with Williams syndrome, a rare congenital disorder whose symptoms include below-average IQ and a variety of physical and developmental problems. Even his fascination with firefighting is something he shares with just about every young boy with Williams syndrome that his mother has met.
 

 But if outsiders think pity is the reason the firefighters tolerate Boyce in their midst, they're wrong. As Lt. Paul Delaney, whom Kathy Boyce said was particularly instrumental in bringing Tim into the fire department fold puts it, "He's just a great kid."
 

 Boyce makes it abundantly clear that he values their friendship, inside and outside the fire house. When firefighters come into Roche Bros. while he is working as a bagger, he shouts out a greeting to them.
 

 One of his buddies is firefighter Dave Anderson, with whom he shares a love of wrestling. Anderson is a friend of Red Sox great Mo Vaughn, who introduced Anderson to a wrestler known as "The Rock." When "The Rock" gave Anderson an autographed picture, the firefighter passed it on to Boyce.
 

 "Every year, he tells me, "I still got your picture," said Anderson.
 

 On Friday, Boyce sat on the floor with the middle-schoolers, waiting for a program on the state police arson dog to begin. The black lab came over to lick his face, and the delighted Boyce said, "Now she knows that I have a dog." A few minutes later, he was on his feet, part of a line-up of kids whose shoes the dog was sniffing for clues hidden by her trainer.
 

 "It's a lot of fun working with the kids that want to be firefighters when they grow up," said Boyce, who said he still hasn't decided what he wants to do when he graduates from Wellesley High School at the end of the year.
 

 Kathy Boyce said that Tim is very knowledgeable about fire department equipment and vehicles. If he's out on the street and hears a fire truck, Tim can identify it before his mother is even aware that the truck is on its way. When firefighters came to visit the child lab at Wellesley High School, Tim helped them demonstrate the clothing.
 

 Wherever Tim ends up living and whatever he ends up doing, Kathy Boyce is sure volunteering at a fire department will "always be part of his life and bring him great joy."
 

 She said the family feels very fortunate that Tim's had the opportunities he has with the Wellesley Fire Department. The men have "totally embraced" him, she said.