What kids should do with their free time...

I was 14 year old.

Deja vu?  Feels like I started this way before.

A good friend of mine invited me down to the fire station when I was 14 years old.  They had a cadet program and he wanted me to join.  He was already a volunteer in the program and couldn't quit talking about it.  I had vision in my head of burning buildings and fire hoses and using the jaws of life to save people and for a 14 year old, that can be very exciting and scary at the same time.  So down to the station I went, and I got to meet some of the guys.

These guys were the coolest guys I ever met.  I was hooked instantly.  My mom was divorced and I never saw my real father (which wasn't a bad thing).  My step father worked tons of hours so he wasn't around much and he and I never connected too well anyway.  But these guys were all father figures for me.  Many of them had a tremendous influence on who I would become later in life.  Meeting them for the first time, I was awestruck.  They came from all walks of life, held all kinds of paying jobs, but all gave their time and effort freely for the betterment of the community.  The Chief had kids around my age but most of the guys didn't have kids.  They didn't treat us like kids though.  They treated us like one of the guys.  Now don't get me wrong, they had standards for the cadets, high standards.  You had to act like a professional.  You had to get good grades or risk being suspended.  They wanted to see your report card.  Life as a cadet didn't come without a bit of razzing and general rookie abuse.  We became very good at washing firetrucks.

No cadet could ride on a fire truck.  I am fairly sure it was for insurance purposes and general safety.  No cadet was going into a burning building.  There was training, and lots of it.  There were classes held in the station and out of town as well.  You weren't getting close enough to fire for you to keep warm, let alone risk being hurt.  Being a cadet is about learning and growing.  A cadets duties on calls were limited to directing traffic, being a gopher (go for this and go for that), making sure they guys got water, and general clean up both on scene and back at the station.  Your primary duty was to watch and learn.

Getting to the calls was always interesting as well.  As I said, cadets do not ride fire trucks.  So you would gear up and stand outside the station while the trucks rolled.  If you were lucky, there were more firefighters at the station than the truck could hold, so someone would drive a personal vehicle and you could hop in.  If not, you waited until one of the guys who lived farther away drove past and stopped to pick you up.

If you hoped to progress, you had to train.  Training wasn't limited to fire either.  Medical training was also important.  I got my CPR certification relatively quickly, then first aid.  After that EMT and eventually I was certified in Advanced Life Support when I was 18.  You went to fire schools on weekends all around the state.  Trench rescue, brush fires, confined space rescue, Firefighter level 1, 2, and 3.  You had to learn to use the tools.  The jaws of life, the pumps on the trucks, self contained breathing apparatus (the air tanks), the types of hoses and what they were used for.  You had to know where everything was on the truck, what compartment it was in, what it was used for, and what the official name for it was.  One of the officers would drill you on this and you had to be cleared on the truck by one of them.  If you missed anything, you failed and had better study more.  They cared about your success and would take their personal time to make sure you got any help you needed.  You even had to be cleared to slide down the fire pole!

The fire station had a couple of bunk rooms and I spent many nights there.  It was my home away from home.  You got to know everyone of the guys and gals.  The firefighters wives were great and we had a few female firefighters too.  They were every bit as qualified as the rest of us.

I have tons of stories and memories of the calls I went on.  (future blogs for sure!)  I saw many things, some great, some terrible.  I have saved lives and sadly, people have died.  I have spent time in hospitals, ambulances, burning buildings, putting out fires in cars, houses, and fields.  We even had a call for a pillow on fire in the intersection of the road.  Car crashes, carbon dioxide detectors going off, hazardous material spills, airplane crashes, train wrecks, and a skateboard accident.  Heart attacks, mailbox fires, kids pulling the alarm at a hospital, testing radiation detectors just in case of a nuclear power plant accident, and taking Santa Claus around neighborhoods on the truck for kids to see.  I have been so lucky to been a part of it all.

There were firetrucks and guys at my wedding.  They offered to have my wife deliver our first child in the fire station on a gurney. (to which my wife less than politely declined, wonder why?)  I spent 7 years as a volunteer, until I moved away.   I miss it everyday and especially when I hear sirens.  Between Crohn's disease and my work schedule, I do not have the time and ability to commit back to doing it again.  But I do miss it.  It made me who I am today and for that I am eternally grateful.  The things I saw and the things I learned are invaluable.

My son, ironically enough, is 14 years old.  He volunteers now.  But not as a firefighter.  He is in the civil air patrol, an offshoot of the Air Force.  I am very proud of him as he has been promoted several times since joining.  He wants to join the Air Force when he graduates school.  The things he is learning there are changing who he is, just like what happened to me when I was his age.  He got to "fly" his first airplane recently.  They took a group of rookies up in the air and let them get behind the stick.  He was instantly hooked.  The guys there take an active interest in him.  They care about his grades.  They train him.  Sound familiar?

Has volunteering shaped your life in any way?  Do you have a story to share?  Post comments below.