Three teammates holding red dodgeballs and looking focused during an outdoor tournament game.
Credit: Courtesy of Event Heroes of Tampa Bay

Tampa firefighters are trading “stop, drop, and roll” for the 5Ds: dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge.

The Tampa Firefighters Museum will host its annual tradition of Cinco de Dodgeball on Saturday, May 2—its ninth celebration of late firefighter Matthew Bunch.

The event raises funds for the Matthew T. Bunch Foundation, which the museum established in 2017, two years after 27-year-old Bunch died following his eight-month battle with pancreatic cancer. 

“True to his sense of humor and spirit, he chose to ‘leave the party’ on Cinco de Mayo—a day now celebrated in his memory,” a Facebook post from the Tampa Firefighters Local 754 read. 

Joy Bunch, managing director of the museum, appreciates how the event gives other firefighters and their families the space to engage in an activity that echoes her son’s athleticism and fun spirit. 

“That’s really what we want to do–just have everybody stop and pause, bring your wife, bring your kids, and just have a little bit of fun with an old-school kind of game that people don’t really talk about,” she said. 

Proceeds from each party go to a firefighter in financial need due to medical services or treatment, per the foundation’s site. This year, the foundation aims to help three firefighters. 

Bunch’s family and friends host the fundraiser in support of the museum as well. The idea to host a dodgeball tournament also partially sprung about from younger fire rescue employees, Tampa Firefighters Museum Vice President Bill Wade recalls. 

“It kind of came out of Matthew’s friends–or the young, as I refer to the young people on the job–as trying to find a unique way to remember their friend,” Wade said.

Wade told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay he’s especially pleased to see that the event brings younger generations to the museum. 

“It just has blossomed into a wonderful, high-energy event that the young folks really support,” Wade said.

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This article appears in Jan. 22 – 28, 2026.

Jasmin Parrado is a spring 2026 intern and News Editor at the Crow's Nest with an interest in local and state politics as well as arts and life. When she isn’t digging into government topics, she indulges...