Where there's smoke....

In July I had the great personal privilege of traveling to Nelsonville, Ohio to speak to the graduates of the OhioYouth Fire & EMS Academy. What an honor! Just as last year when I got to speak at the West Virginia Junior Fire Academy, I am just amazed at the youth of our nation that are excited about helping out their communities in the fireservice. What I saw in Ohio were young people under the age of 18 who just shined. They were eager to learn. Theywere eager to connect and when I saw them they were eager to eat! These young people are given a real workout in the program and they learned a lot about our profession. The Ohio State Firefighters Association is to be commended for this program and their associations commitment to the youth. Gary Zehring with the OSFA is the ringmaster and does a great job every year with this program. I doubt that he gets a lot of sleep when the academy is in session. A number of the youth were from New Jersey - I believe this has been the case for several years. I got to meet with these young firefighters. Sometimes young folks are a little reserved and talking to someone who could be their grandpa might not be what they had in mind. That was not case in Ohio. These young folks took the time to visit with Anita and I - and we learned lots from them. I also need to mention their instructors - many from Ohio and many from New Jersey. They are the best! They understand their role is to impart skills that will prepare these young folks for a lifetime in the fire service.I would say that this is very much what I saw in West Virginia last year, too. Across the nation we have many, many youthfire programs. For those that want to start a program check out the resources at the National Volunteer Fire Council.There you will find operating guidelines, forms and much more that will enable you to get your youth program up and running. I will also say that I had a great meeting with the instructors in Ohio and they conveyed the concerns they had about youth programs. I had a call with Gerald Presta in New York State just a few weeks ago. Jerry is just an unbelievable youth fire program believer. All of them said without exception that the real problem is funding for these programs. Of course, there are grant opportunities for fire departments but those don’t reach down into the category of youth in many cases. Just buying T-shirts or water bottles, let alone gear, can be a huge burden. Some fire departments see the benefit of youth programs and others barely have enough money to run their fire company let alone invest in the future. I am going to do all that I can to see what we can do to find national sponsors of these youth programs - staytuned! Let me also talk about my own youth program at Sheridan County Fire Department in Hoxie, Kansas. We have had as many as 5 in the program. Right now we have 2. Some of the earlier members are now volunteers in our department and elsewhere around the state. I have been fortunate to have a department and members that see the value inbeing a mentor and guide to young folks. We even sent one of our juniors to West Virginia camp this year. It was a biginvestment for us to do that, but that young lady has been on fire (pardon the pun) ever since she got back. She has even taught classes to the adult members. This should be your mission in your department to reach out to the younger folks in your community to get them excited about the fire service and the possibility of either volunteering in their community or even taking it up as a career choice in life. Youth programs are a little like fishing - if you set the hook, you can land them.As you can tell I am very excited about our youth programs and hope that you will be too in your local communities, because where there’s smoke....