Sean Kirst: They were rescuers … until the brutal night one year ago when they needed to be rescued

On Friday, she and Will Marcy reunited with Firefighter Sam Merlo at the Buffalo Fire Department repair shop on Seventh Street, almost a year to the day since they all were last together.

Twelve months ago, on a blinding Friday night in late December, Merlo knocked on the window of an SUV when Marcy and Pizarro were stranded, in the heart of the Christmas weekend blizzard.

“What an amazing journey,” said Pizarro, now co-chairperson of the Code Blue Collaborative, who had teamed up with Marcy on a desperate mission on that night.

Code Blue exists to provide shelter to anyone who might be living outdoors, without refuge, when temperatures fall below 32 degrees. A year ago, Pizarro – then chair of the WNY Coalition for the Homeless – joined Marcy, of the Kenmore Alliance Church Shelterless Ministry, in trying to reach as many people as they could on a night of lethal danger.

“The way I felt,” Pizarro said, “is that we can’t not go out.”

They ended up stuck in deep snow, on Clinton Street. Marcy plays down the risk, saying he had plenty of gas, food and water. Merlo, too, prefers to emphasize all the firefighters, police officers and emergency workers who saved lives during the storm, insisting he’s no hero for doing his job.

Through the intensity of the hug she offered Merlo, Pizarro clearly disagrees. Last week, she took part in a solstice ceremony, a “homeless person’s memorial,” at the Buffalo Central Library. Mourners read the names of 17 people who died without shelter over the past year – including four lost in the blizzard.

Pizarro has spent years trying to offer safety to anyone facing such danger. At a time when the number of people without homes is on the rise, she speaks with gratitude of a legion of others dedicated to the same cause – particularly Jean Bennett, co-chair of Code Blue, who oversaw an effort that sheltered about 250 people during…