There resides amongst us a rare breed of individuals upon whom we have come to rely. They give their time and effort to help their fellow man. How would you like to get up in the middle of the night, with no knowledge of when you might return home, with no thought of monetary compensation, to help someone who could be (possibly) a complete stranger?
These unselfish persons may have to leave home in the middle of their children's birthday party, in the middle of a family reunion, in the middle of their meal, etc., both day and night. They spend countless hours of their own time in training. At times their lives are on the line in defense of another persons life and/or property.
These people do this unselfishly without recompense because they want to help their neighbors and their community. These are your local volunteer firefighters and EMTs.
For their efforts, they are, at times, blamed for not being able to save peoples belongings and/or lives. This is done by people who do nothing but stand around and criticize about them not responding fast enough or with insufficient equipment or water.
These people could increase the efficiency of the Fire Department if they would do less complaining and do more doing. They could volunteer some of their time to become trained and become a volunteer fire fighter or EMT.
For those that feel they are too old or physically unfit, they could form an auxiliary for the Fire Department. When fighting fires in the summer, it gets extremely hot. The VFD members would greatly appreciate something cold to drink. Also in the winter, something warm to drink would be nice. When on a fire for a long period of time, food would also be nice. It is extremely hard to function when you have used up all of your nutritional reserves & adrenalin. Help in cleaning up equipment after a fire would also be nice. How about helping with recruiting drives or fundraisers?
We don't need to raise taxes to have a great Fire Department, what we need is more community involvement. How many of our fellow citizens are willing to make the sacrifice and step up to the bat? If you are one such person, call your Volunteer Fire Department and volunteer today!
My sincere gratitude and appreciation goes out to these unsung heroes who make many sacrifices that the normal everyday person never thinks about.
SAM JEPSON
Silver Springs
