Join Us in Celebrating Valentine’s Day 2025

This Valentines Day, we’re celebrating one of our FDNY couples: EMTs Jeani St. Clair and Akeem Gill, who both work at EMS Station 38. Their story began back in 2009 when they first met as freshmen at Captain Vernon A. Richard High School for Fire and Life Safety.

“We became really close. We were both in the Explorer program, and we had every class together from freshman to senior year,” recalled EMT St. Clair.

“There was a lot of flirting back and forth, but it stopped there,” said EMT Gill.

Gill joined the FDNY in 2015, initially working at Station 40 before transferring to Station 38. In 2017, St. Clair graduated from the FDNY EMS Academy and was assigned to the same station.

“I was new, so I turned to him for guidance. He really helped me feel more comfortable at the station. We started hanging out more, talking more. We stayed best friends until 2019,” said EMT St. Clair. “Then, around Halloween, I sent him a meme that said, ‘Do you want to dress up as a couple?’”

“I’m not really into Halloween, but I thought the meme was funny,” said EMT Gill. “A few days later, she asked me what I thought of it, and I said it was funny, but I wasn’t dressing up. Then she asked, ‘No, what do you think about being a couple?’”

The couple acknowledges that every relationship has its challenges, but they feel lucky to have their strong friendship to lean on through it all. Together, they have a four-year-old daughter, Mya, who shares their love of sneakers and enjoys coming to their station to celebrate holidays and other events.