{"id":10126,"date":"2019-04-23T14:27:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T17:27:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=10126"},"modified":"2019-04-23T14:27:52","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T17:27:52","slug":"being-a-volunteer-firefighter-brings-satisfaction-to-wellington-grand-lake-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=10126","title":{"rendered":"Being a volunteer firefighter brings satisfaction to Wellington, Grand Lake members"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

HRM Fire stations looking to community to add new blood <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WELLINGTON<\/strong>: Making a difference in your community can make you feel satisfaction, and that\u2019s what several local volunteer firefighters from Station 42 (Wellington) and Station 43 (Grand Lake) say they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in \norder to protect the community to the best of their ability both \nstations require a few more good men and women to add to their volunteer\n departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erika Hebert spoke about the female involvement of volunteer firefighters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis\n is an opportunity for young women in the community who want to find a \nway to give back and to find a way to find strength in yourself,\u201d said \nHebert. \u201cI find volunteering gives you a lot of that. It gives you a lot\n of people skills, medical skills, and a solid background in the first \nresponder world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt really is a way for women of all ages to find a way to find your inner strength and be proud of something.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She\n said she wanted to become a volunteer as a way to help others. She said\n being part of the fire service has let her meet people and is \nrewarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe community is important to me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s \nnice to know there\u2019s a way to feel strong even as a female individual. \nIt\u2019s a way to show that anybody can do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s shaped me into the woman I am today.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Firefighters bunker gear and helmets hang at the ready inside Station 42 in Wellington. (Healey photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Marc Rothwell first started in 1986 after a job as a captain with a Canadian Coast Guard ship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cVolunteering as firefighter is more hands on out here in the rural area,\u201d said Rothwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\n said there\u2019s a great social aspect to being a volunteer \nfirefighter\u2014from different skill sets to trades and a variety of \nbackgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe big thing I find now is there\u2019s more training and we\u2019re even more hands-on than when I first joined,\u201d said Rothwell..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rothwell said now that he\u2019s retired, he\u2019s around more often.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m able to respond now and go wherever we\u2019re needed,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeff\n Pickrem started in the junior firefighter program at age 14 in \nWaverley. He has moved up to being a Station Chief in Wellington. He has\n been through a lot of peaks and valleys.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOver the years when I \nbecame an active member at 18, we had 32 volunteer members in Waverley,\u201d\n he said. \u201cIf you stopped to change your clothes when the pager went \noff, you missed the first three trucks. And I lived within two minutes \nof the station.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the volunteer community is drying up for almost anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur numbers here are climbing, but so is the number of people in the community,\u201d said Pickrem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re on the fence about joining, Hebert had some good advice. Just do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\n best thing I can say is come talk to us, get a tour of the fire station\n and our trucks,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not something you should be afraid to \ntry. If you\u2019re seriously interested, you will be welcomed with open \narms. Help is always needed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Station 42 and 43 train on Tuesday \nnights, beginning at 7 p.m. Residents are encouraged to drop by to find \nout more about becoming a volunteer firefighter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HRM Fire stations looking to community to add new blood WELLINGTON: Making a difference in your community can make you feel satisfaction, and that\u2019s what several local volunteer firefighters from Station 42 (Wellington) and Station 43 (Grand Lake) say they do. However, in order to protect the community to the best of their ability both […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10127,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,12],"tags":[2,32,381,156,468,143],"class_list":["post-10126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-featured","tag-fall-river","tag-firefighters","tag-grand-lake","tag-hrm-fire","tag-volunteer-fire","tag-wellington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}