A Proud Up and Coming Partner in My Community

By Emma Schneider
Junior at Reisterstown, Md., Volunteer Fire Company

Being a junior with the fire department, I get to learn a lot and see some of the community’s best responders in action. I get to see just how hard they work to keep the community safe, in addition to doing a lot of charity work within and outside the department. They are always ready to run a call and do their best to help out in the community, whether it is a large house fire, some person with a hang nail, or someone who is in need of immediate medical attention. I hope to follow in their footsteps and also be one to always come to people’s rescue in their time of crisis.

Now that I am familiar with how the system works, from dispatch to keeping the department neat to going on calls, and how my department works, to a good extent, I plan to become more of a partner in my community.

I hope to achieve this by continuing to be a junior in my department, learning as much as I can and helping out around the station whenever possible. I also plan to get out into my community and teach younger students about how to prepare for both, natural and artificial disasters.

One of the people that had the biggest impact on my decision to lead my life down to the road of getting into the fire department and helping in the community was my teacher who I first had for a basic adult CPR class. The only intentions I had in that class were to learn some skills to have an upper hand on students when it came time to take lifeguarding classes.

But as the class and time went on, I realized that I loved every bit of the class and not just that I would have an easy, good paying summer job. I eventually took more and more classes with the same teacher and he has truly influenced me in the career path I would like to take. I hope to someday become a full time paramedic.

His influences also lead me to volunteer with the American Red Cross. I got to help people by making a difference in the smallest ways in our community, but it made me feel like I meant something to my community. I give full credit to him for helping me to discover my true self and what I hope to spend the rest of my life doing.

I have now been with Reisterstown Volunteer Fire Company for two months and I have loved all of the time I have spent at the station. We learn a lot from trying things out and listening to how others have done the right and wrong things while on the job.

If we want to learn how to use something, we can just ask, and if someone is available they will teach us or stand there and let us figure it out on our own, just giving advice as necessary. The guys are very good at making the juniors feel welcome and useful at the department. My guess is they see training juniors as another way of giving back to the community, since they are training the future of the department.

The other day, I got to really get out into the community with my department. We were doing a typical fire department fundraiser, Fill-the-Boot. One of the juniors and I rode out with a bunch of the guys from the station to a pretty busy intersection with the boots, our company shirts and brightly colored reflective vests.

It was both of our first time doing this and we were both rather anxious. It was really nice to, for the first time, really hear how thankful people were of our department and of the people who volunteer there. One child has really stood out in my mind since that fundraiser. As he was putting a few coins into my boot, he said, “Thank you, you are my hero.” That statement along with many similar ones from others really touched my heart and has just made me want to get out into the community even more.

Every time I am at the station, I learn more things about our community than I would have ever learned otherwise. I love being so involved at a young age and I am truly hoping that as I get older, I will be able to do even more.