A heartwarming moment was created out of a heart-wrenching loss to the Burnsville community on Saturday. Thousands flooded the town with a convoy in remembrance of three first responders who laid down their lives on the job just under a week ago.

The hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people who descended on the Burnsville Center were brought together by four young men, who described themselves as longtime friends.

“The nerves are rushing right now,” reacted one of those organizers, Austin Wacheldorf, just before the event kicked off. “I was not expecting this turnout. It’s, it’s unbelievable.”

Wacheldorf was the one behind the idea, said fellow organizer Clint Svendsen.

“He’s like, ‘Hey, you guys want to, you know, throw something together? Maybe something small. We’ll see what happens.’ And he posted it on Facebook, and it just it blew up,” he explained.

“I think we’ve probably hit 2,500-2,800 people here, not to mention the people that are going to be sitting along the sidewalks in our route,” noted another organizer, Tucker Endres.

All of the honks, flashing lights and waving flags were respects paid to three Burnsville heroes: fallen officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge and firefighter/paramedic Adam Finseth.

“They’re my age, 27, 26, and it’s terrifying, you know. It can happen to anyone and it hits so close to home, it’s almost like you were friends with them,” Wacheldorf said.

“It’s our duty to pay our respects to these gentlemen that lost their lives to defend basically our public safety and keep everyone around us safe and our families,” added the fourth friend and organizer, Brian Nicholas.

“I was born and raised here in Burnsville,” he added. “And I wouldn’t trade this community for anything in the world. Seeing all the people that showed up here today for us, it’s amazing.”

Nicholas created a donation box for the event. The organizers said they plan to take it to the Burnsville Police Department to distribute evenly between the families of the fallen first responders.

An official, ongoing fundraiser was set up earlier this week as well.