>> From WXXI News.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour could be made in a terrifying moment in your home.

You're in the kitchen cooking dinner and your oil overheats.

And the next thing you know, you're dealing with a grease fire.

It's chaotic, it is frightening, and it's beyond your control.

And so you call 911 expecting a fire truck to be sent to your home.

What happens if a truck is not available for hours or more, or if there isn't one available in your area at all?

According to the National Fire Department Registry, nearly 70% of fire crews working across the country are volunteer in New York, that percentage is 90%, but the number of those volunteers is declining, according to the National Volunteer Fire Council, the number of volunteer firefighters dropped by more than 20% between 1985 and 2020, and during that time, the organization says emergency calls more than tripled.

Crews are becoming worn out.

A lack of resources has created dangerous and even deadly situations, National Volunteer Fire Council Chair Steve Hirsch has said, quote, were it not for the fire departments, those communities would simply fall apart.

We're going to rely on volunteer firefighters forever in this nation, end quote.

As rural hospitals struggle to serve their communities and some are talking about closing, closing and as emergency relief dollars become harder to come by, volunteering is a lifeline for many small towns.

What happens when the volunteers just aren't there?

Our guest this hour represent the Branchport Keuka Park Fire Department, a department that is expanding its recruitment efforts, and we're talking to them about how they have maintained multiple generations of volunteering at a time when volunteering is declining in many places, and what it means in really everywhere, what it means for their community to have the support they need from firefighters, from emergency responders.

Let me welcome our guests.

Some are back on the program.

Some are here for the first time.

Welcome back to Matt Kelly EMS, captain of the Branchport Keuka Park Fire Department and EMT for Yates County Ambulance.

Thanks for being here, Matt.

>> Thank you Evan.

Always good to be here.

>> Bill DiFabio is third Assistant Chief of the Branchport Keuka Park Fire Department.

Bill, welcome to you.

>> Yes, thanks for having us.

>> And I said to Bill, someday you can aspire to be second assistant.

And Matt said.

>> You already were Bill.

Bill is happy to be third assistant.

>> Thanks for being back here, Bill.

It's nice to see you across the table from Bill.

Let me welcome Lily Stewart, who's a firefighter EMT with a Branchport Keuka Park Fire Department and a junior at Keuka College.

Welcome to you.

>> Yes, thank you so much for having me.

>> And Alvin Leid is a firefighter with the department as well.

Welcome to you, Alvin.

>> Yes, thank you for having us.

>> And I'm going to start with you, Matt.

I mean, this is this is a moment when what we really need is probably support services and a lot of different ways.

And, of course, that means volunteering.

But you can understand why people are going.

I don't have time.

I'm raising kids.

I'm working multiple jobs.

You know, I don't really feel connected.

So what you are trying to do with this department?

What?

You're clearly having some success doing.

You got a couple of college students here today is what some departments are not finding success doing.

Why are you guys succeeding with this?

>> Well, I think it has to do with a lot of reasons.

I think leadership is a big part of it.

The culture of the department is a big part of it.

we have put a lot of time, energy, effort and enthusiasm into bringing new people into the department and keeping them in the department.

and by saying that I don't want to imply that other departments don't do that.

That's not what I'm saying.

But I think we have made a real concerted effort to look at our needs, look at what steps we need to take to meet those needs, and then making that a top level priority for everything that we do.

>> How many people do you work with now?

How many people in the.

>> Department 55 in the department.

And 50 are highly active.

>> So 50 active.

And how many calls a year are you getting?

Do you.

>> Know, last year we got 268.

So more than one a day.

>> Yeah.

>> I'm sorry, 360.

>> Hundred and 60.

So just about one a day on average.

But but for 50 people I mean I don't some calls may require different numbers of responders.

But this means that you may have to give up your Friday night.

You might get called out, you know, and and that's part of what you sign up for, right?

>> Absolutely, absolutely.

And I think what in our department, what we find is that and take this as a take this statement as for what it's worth, but we find joy in helping people when they need us.

There's joy in helping our community.

We find joy in what we do.

So I think it's not always joyful to get up at 237 in the morning.

And go screaming out the door when the snow is blowing, you know, horizontal, right?

But we do it and we do that because we care about our community and we want to we want to be a part of making the community better.

>> How long have you been doing it now?

>> Going to be my 10th year, 10th year doing this.

>> Any thought about not doing it in the future?

>> no, not at all.

The the participation might change.

certainly.

I mean, certainly getting older, there are things that young guys and young girls are suited to do, that I'm not going to be suited to do anymore.

But that's not to say there aren't ways to participate as you move, as you get older and move on in the department.

>> So I want to take a little snapshot of the people who are here and why they've decided to do this.

And I think it's instructive to start with the youngest person on the panel.

And that's Lily Stewart, who is a firefighter EMT with the Branchport Keuka Park Fire Department.

You're a junior at Keuka College, right?

And where are you from originally?

>> I'm at Churchville, actually, I'm pretty local.

>> Churchville up here in the Rochester area.

Did you grow up in a firefighting family?

>> I did not, actually, no.

I think in part like my family members aren't firm members themselves, but I grew up down the road from a fire station, and we would always.

My mom raised us to bring.

We would bake goods and bring them down the road to the station, that type of thing.

>> Okay.

And so what brought you to this department?

>> It was actually a friend of mine who was in the department as well.

She was she found the department at a kind of campus fair that we had at our college, and she didn't want to go to the meeting alone, so I kind of went with her, even though I had a lot going on at the time.

And I get there and I'm handed an application and I'm thinking I'm way in over my head.

And then the more they talk and the more info I get, the more I realize that this could be something that I've wanted to do for way longer than I realized.

>> What are you studying at Keuka College?

>> I'm a psychology major at.

>> Psychology major.

Oh, okay.

Interesting.

So why did you then, as you thought about it, think that this could have been a good fit for you?

>> I think I should have realized it long before I did.

And I think I have our friend to thank for that, for getting me involved early on.

It would have taken me a long time.

I've been a lifeguard, actually, at my high school pool for a couple of years, and I'm kind of the person who would drive past, like, mvas and car accidents on the highway and just always want to stop and help anytime anybody had even a minor medical emergency or something of the sort, I would want to help.

However, I could.

>> And now you even want to be on the dive team, is that right?

>> Yeah, that's a possible interest in the future.

>> Okay, so how long do you expect to be able to do.

I mean, I know Crystal ball is your future.

You can go in a lot of different, different directions.

I get it, Lily, but is this the kind of thing that you're going to do through college?

Is this kind of thing that you're going to try to do for a long time?

>> I'm going to do it as long as my health allows, as long as I possibly can.

>> How many calls have you been out on?

>> it's hard to say for sure.

Not nearly as many as these guys have.

Obviously.

probably.

Maybe 30, maybe.

>> 30 calls.

So plenty of calls.

Do you remember your first.

>> yes, one of our first actual structure fires was not too far from my college campus.

It was a fully engulfed barn fire, and we haven't even.

We hadn't eaten even completed, like, exterior firefighting yet.

And we were able to get on a hose line and actually fight the fire.

It was an amazing experience.

>> have you have you had a hardest day on the job there yet?

>> Not to the extent that these guys probably have.

I haven't been, it's only been barely over a year.

Okay, so not quite to the extent that you're thinking.

>>, what's middle of the night, do you get called in the middle of the night?

>> Yep, absolutely.

Especially for my college campus.

We get a lot of phone calls.

>> I mean, they can't call you out of class, can they?

>> I mean, we are on call technically 24/7, 365.

So I have my pager on me.

If it's just something where they tend to have a lot of people or they don't.

It's one of those more common calls that I obviously won't leave class for it.

But if it's something like a structure fire or an MVA, I will ask my professor if it's all right.

>> The college students have done a really good job balancing their schoolwork with responding to calls.

It's one of the things we noticed about this cadre of college kids that came in is they were 100% enthusiastic right out of the gate, like, tell the story where they came in the first night and we handle an application.

She's like an application.

Awesome.

And then I was like, you guys want to see trucks and trucks?

Let's go see trucks.

And they've just been 100% on board.

Interested in doing this the whole way through.

And, I mean, Lily was one of the college students that went out and got her EMT certification over the summer all on her own because she wanted to get engaged with this.

>> So., no, I mean, that's really impressive.

And I mean, I, I asked about getting called out of class.

You get called out of all kinds of things.

I know you guys do.

And we've talked about this, but, Lily, that hasn't dissuaded you.

>> Not at all.

>> Okay, Matt talked a little bit about this, but what would you say to people who maybe are thinking about volunteering or would consider it and didn't think that that would be their thing to do?

What do you get out of it?

>> personally, it's an outlet for integrity.

it's extremely fulfilling to go out and be able to help people on their worst day.

I mean, it could be worst day, best day, given the situation, and you're able to help people in a way that they'll remember forever.

I mean, even if it's something as more calm, like a lift assist, you know, it still means the world to everybody that calls.

>> Awesome.

and, you know, there's a lot of talk lately about what it means to be involved in your community.

You'll never have to doubt if you're involved in your community doing this.

I mean, this is how you get to know your community.

does this for you?

does it break down any barriers?

Do you see people differently when you see them up close in these hard times?

>> To an extent, but it also allows you to see the humanity in everybody that you meet, and it can change your perspective of, I mean trying to figure out how to word this.

Like they say, you know, the heart attack at 60 started at 20.

And it kind of gives you that motivation to keep yourself in the best condition that you can in a way so that you're not only able to go out and help more people and help people longer, but also just to make sure that you can also then send that forward and help and help other people help others as well.

>> And, you know, you're I first of all, I can't ask you to speak for your whole generation.

Second of all, let's not overgeneralize I'm just looking at some data of declining volunteerism.

My guess is some of that is just because we are so much more disconnected as a society.

The pandemic probably accelerated that, but certainly pandemic or not, we are in our digital world more than our physical worlds.

Often we are not attending church or being part of a PTA or being part of a volunteer department.

As much as we used to.

Do you have any thoughts about your generation in particular with that?

Do you think people are just more used to being in the digital world, not the physical world, or why volunteerism is lower?

>> that's a really good question.

I think it's I mean, I hadn't really had any experiences with volunteer, like firefighting specifically or medical other than lifeguarding beforehand.

And I'm not a big social media person.

that's not my type of thing for you.

Thank you.

I've always been kind of a go getter.

Get out and do things.

but I think especially with what our department's doing.

And, Matt, you're a wonderful PR person.

getting the message out and being able to be one of the college students, getting that memo out among my generation has been awesome, too.

Getting people more interested in making them realize that I think they can have a lot of misconceptions around it, that they may not necessarily be true.

>> Matt, are you sure she's real?

>> sure as I can be about anything.

>> So what's really interesting, Evan, is last last school year, five of these college students, five young ladies came to our department over the summer.

When they went back home, four of them joined their local volunteer fire department and is probably going to continue on, as Lily says, for as long as they can.

So I feel great about we're enhancing the fire service.

They're not going to benefit the Branchport Keuka Park Fire Department forever.

They may benefit it for only the four years they're there, but we're we're helping the volunteers service within New York State.

>> Well, you spent a 29 year career with the city of Auburn.

>> Yes.

>> And you have maybe a longer career than anybody here at 16.

Joined the fire department.

Your father was a member.

I think we've talked about that.

You joined the Air Force, spent nine years as as an enlisted and a civilian fire protection specialist.

And so I know you've been doing this for a long time.

Are you worried about the state of volunteerism?

I mean, I'm not just talking about your department.

I'm talking about in general in this country.

>> So it depends on the certain areas.

so the yes, there is a concern nationwide, the Pennsylvania statistics are crazy, 80,000.

There used to be like 80,000 volunteer firefighters, and now it's well below that less than half.

so a lot of different areas are in in Dyer's with volunteer.

And yes, it is a it's a problem.

And what's the answer?

>> Yeah.

I mean, I don't know, right?

I mean, I, I do think the disconnect that we have as communities is hurting.

It has to but I don't know how to combat that.

I don't know how to as as awesome as it is to hear from Lily that she's not really into social media, she's into doing things in the physical world, being part of her community.

I think it would be naive to hope that entire generations of young people and future young people will be exactly like that.

I mean, like, we're not going in that direction.

So what do we do, Bill?

I mean, I don't know what the answer either.

>> So what you're seeing is even in our area and counties close to us, you're seeing partial paid fire departments starting up and being supplemented they call them station watchmen.

Some even are all called janitors.

station Watchmen is probably the most popular.

these folks, their job is to take care of the firehouse.

And they're also certified firefighters.

So when the bell hits, they'll go during the day.

>> Producer Megan Mack fact, check me on this.

I think it was in the town of Lima that a write in candidate, an entire write in slate won that election last week because of an issue of whether the town can afford to even pay volunteer response, and the community wanted to pay.

The community was willing to do it.

I think the incumbent didn't feel like they had the budget, that the budget was going to be 25 K from the town, 25 K from the county, 25 K from another source.

And I think it blew up the election.

Is that correct?

Jonathan Cates one that is going to be the supervisor in Lima over that election.

And the central issue driving that was whether they can afford this bill.

And I understand that nobody wants to raise taxes and nobody feels like there's money, because in a lot of places there isn't.

But what's the position that you would take to, I guess policymakers at any level.

Can can you advocate in a way that would convince people.

>>, oh, as far as putting on the page.

>> Putting some dollars, putting some dollars into it?

>> Well, and it depends on the community.

It depends.

>> On every community.

>> Right.

Absolutely not.

it depends on if the community can afford it.

It depends on if the community wants to afford it.

I did not follow the fishers incident just outside the city of Rochester here.

I did not follow that real close, but that was the in a stroke of a pen, they closed that fire district and went back to volunteerism.

And I did watch a couple of the open meetings in 99% of the people that got up and spoke at those meetings were willing to pay.

But for some reason, the town supervisors wanted to close that.

>> Matt, anything you want to add on this particular part of the.

>> Yeah, no, I think Bill is spot on when he said it really depends on the community.

I think the volunteer firefighter organization of New York, Fasny, has estimated it's something like $1.5 billion in taxes.

Get saved by having volunteer departments.

I mean, that's that's a huge chunk of money.

and I think there's also real value to volunteer organizations doing providing this kind of service to their community.

I think.

It's it builds community.

It serves community.

I mean, it's neighbors helping neighbors, family helping family, friends helping friends.

and that doesn't take away from paid services.

Equally valuable, equally valuable.

but I think not every community can afford it.

And there are other benefits to having a volunteer organization than just whether or not somebody's getting paid and how many tax dollars it's going to cost us.

>> And a big part of this, too, would be you got to look at the numbers.

We're doing about 365 calls a year.

You start going close to 600, a thousand calls a year.

you either a have to have a large volunteer fire department or b, you got to start putting folks on.

>> Lily, can you keep doing this?

If you don't get paid anything.

>> That's a fair question.

I mean, in my in my future, I certainly hope to do it as long as I can without being paid.

I mean, it would be nice to an extent, but at the same time, there's some aspect of, like Matt said, neighbors helping neighbors of just going out there simply to be able to help people.

It's not I don't think any of us here do it because we wish we could be paid.

It's not about that.

It's really not.

At least for us.

>> Alvin Leid from Branchport originally.

Is that right?

Yep.

All right.

And so three years now with the department.

>> Correct.

>> What brought you to it?

>> I had a brother in law that was with the Branchport department, and he had mentioned that they need to boost their numbers and like Lily had mentioned earlier, it was something that I thought I would like to do at some point, but the timing with the family and job, I just didn't think I had the time.

But after a final push from one of my brother in laws, I gathered the courage to walk through the doors for the first time.

And it's been it's been a lot of fun.

>> How many calls a year are you on?

Do you know.

>> probably run about 90 to 100.

>> 90 to 100 calls a year.

So, I mean, that's a lot of calls.

do you remember the first one?

>> I can't recall the the first call that I went on, per se, but I do remember the first one where I actually got to put, you know, grab a hold of a line and put water on a fire.

And I'll remember that for the rest of my life.

That was.

It was an exhilarating feeling in the moment, you know, channeling that adrenaline to do to rely on the training that I had received prior and do what needed to be done.

But then, in retrospect, I look back and just that feeling of being able to help, help the community at at their worst day as a case was.

>> you've got a busy life.

>> Yes.

>> You've got plenty to do.

You grew up with a large family?

>> Yes.

>> Grew up in a large Mennonite family.

You've got your own family.

You got a full time job?

>> Yes.

>> How do you.

I mean, how do you justify to yourself 90 to 100 calls that have to be occasionally.

You know, you could be doing other things that are demanding of your time, right?

>> Yes.

And that is one thing I want to thank my wife for the understanding of when the tones drop and I leave the dinner table and as a case in relatively recently did not arrive back home until early the next morning, being understanding of that and being able to take over, you know, parenting duties and also to the kids for understanding that somebody had a bad day and dad is going out to help them, you know, do what can what needs to be done to improve the situation.

>> I think your modeling for your kids, what it means to be a part of a community.

Do you think that doing this is has it changed you at all?

>> We're all more tired.

Evan.

>> Nobody gets enough sleep.

>> Yeah.

>> For sure.

As far as far as changing myself, I. I feel like it.

It helped me to find something within myself of a serve a servant.

And being being able to to serve my community.

Maybe more of a being, an outlet for, you know, serving, serving the community.

>> Lily, do you think this has changed you at all?

>> I would say so.

I mean, I'm also in a period of life where I'm undergoing a lot of just personal experience and growth, but it's also like Alvin said, giving me an outlet to support my community and really get involved with the people that are in this area.

And if I can add one more thing, these are some of the most I don't say this lightly.

These are some of the most generous, kind, wonderful, amazing people I have ever met.

And I wish, I truly wish I could be with this department as long as I possibly could.

I'm so sad.

It's only during college.

>> But what if people.

>> On the department vote differently?

I'm being a little cheeky here, but like, I love the fact that communities like this are.

Matt and I have talked about this on this program before.

Like that stuff gets thrown out at the door.

Here you are, all one team working together.

>> That's absolutely right.

>> I mean, it has to be.

It doesn't matter if you show up in someone's got a yard sign you don't like.

Doesn't matter if someone on your department voted in a way you that you didn't vote, right.

I mean, like, I don't think you're checking, are you, man?

>> The one of, I think one of the most valuable things that a community can have is when a group of people come together for a bigger purpose, and our bigger purpose is serving the community overall.

and I, the things that drive our department are empathy, compassion and enthusiasm.

I mean, bad stuff's going to happen.

It's just a question of who's going to show up to help you out when it does.

and that, you know, whether you're showing up for 10% of the calls a year or 90% of the calls a year, you're showing up when people need it.

And that's and getting out.

You know, we joke about getting out of bed at 237 in the morning when the snow is blowing horizontal and the roads are slick, but it's a sacrifice you make.

Of course it's a sacrifice.

And by making those sacrifices, by saying that this is something I'm going to do and I can guarantee none of us are happy at the time that we have to do it.

Sure, but, you know, we're going to make that sacrifice.

We're going to get out there and we're going to help, and we're going to we're going to make sure that we we do the most we can for our community.

And that is extraordinarily valuable for building building healthy communities.

It's I will say this, I just I just had an experience where somebody said hi to me in like the grocery store, and we chatted for a little bit.

I couldn't remember who that person, I couldn't remember who the person was, like, oh, that was a call.

We had.

This person remembered me from the call.

they weren't standing at the time that I was interacting with them at the call.

It was, but it was like, oh, and they people remember.

And that's.

>> I'm sure they do, man.

>> You know, and that's, that's I don't know if that says anything about me or about us, but that just says something about neighbors taking care of neighbors.

>> Oh my gosh.

Yes.

And I'm not surprised that they remember those are as I think as Lily said, this might be their worst day, but you found a way to help them.

They're going to remember your face.

They might remember your name, your department.

I think it's great.

I was going to grab Jim in the Finger Lakes.

We lost Jim.

Jim, give us a call back here in listeners, I want to hear from you.

I mean, I want to know if if you volunteer, if you.

And we're not just talking in this case about fire department or EMT or whatever, do you find less time in your life to do that than you expected or more time?

Are you looking to do that?

Are you wondering what training is required?

We'll talk a little bit more in our second half hour about that.

It's 844295 talk.

It's toll free 8442958255263 WXXI.

If you're in Rochester 2639994, email the program Connections at wxxi.org.

Join us on the chat on the YouTube side of the equation if you're watching on YouTube from WXXI News YouTube channel, I want to thank Lily Stewart who's going to give up the microphone for one of her colleagues and just wish you well.

what a great story and thank you for doing the service that you're doing for your community.

Thanks for coming in and telling your story here today.

>> Awesome.

Thank you so much for having me again.

>> And we've also been joined we're going to be joined by Rebecca Case in a moment.

We've got Alvin Leid.

We've got Bill DiFabio Matt Kelly from the Branchport Keuka Park Fire Department and doing all kinds of work and 365 days a year about a call a day in their community.

We're talking about the state of volunteering on Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson Wednesday on the next Connections.

If you could find out that you are predisposed to certain health conditions like cancer or heart disease, would you want to know a new program at Rochester Regional Health offers no cost genetic testing for people 18 and older.

We're going to talk with the clinicians behind the program about how it works and what it means for the future of personalized care in medicine.

Talk with you Wednesday.

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>> This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

I want to welcome Rebecca Case to the program who's a firefighter EMT with the Branchport Keuka Park Fire Department and a junior at Keuka College.

Welcome.

Thank you for being with us here.

>> Thank you so much.

>> And listeners, we're talking about volunteering in general.

This is the department that's worked really hard to not only maintain their ranks, but to grow their ranks and to understand generationally how to keep growing and getting younger and bringing in fresh volunteers.

And they've been doing a really good job of that at a time when volunteerism in general has gone down over the decades, there are a lot of communities in need.

A lot of communities don't have a lot of resources.

Towns are debating whether to cut paid programs and paid services.

Rural hospitals are struggling, struggling.

So there's a lot of need out there.

And this is a department that has done really, really well with this.

Rebecca, what brought you into it?

Tell us your story.

>> so right out of high school, I got my EMT and then I'm going for nursing at Keuka College.

And I figured might as well get the experience on both sides, see what it's like to be in the field before they get to me in the hospitals.

So when they came to my career fair down at the Or the college, I was like, is there a way I can get experience like, oh, yes, I can.

I can get you all the experience you want.

So I go to that dinner table, fill that out and bring it right back.

They're like, oh, you're ready?

I'm like, oh yeah, I'm ready.

I know what I'm doing here.

>> Where are you from originally?

>> I'm from Hilton.

>> From Hilton.

Okay.

Yeah.

And did you grow up with volunteers in the family?

>> I did not grow up with any firefighters or EMS.

Really?

In my side of the family.

>> Okay.

And but I understand kind of the through line here for you.

It seems like a logical fit.

any regrets having done this for how long now?

>> this is my second or full year.

>> So you're in your second full year.

So you've done this for a full year.

Any regrets?

>> No, not at all.

>> How many calls have you been on?

>> I'm not really sure.

I think this year I'm up to 60.

>> 61 or something like that.

>> Yeah.

>> Who's on the most calls?

Like, what's the highest number?

Is it Bill?

>> No, it's Matt.

>> How many?

>> Matt 149.

>> Your wife is listening.

She would.

>> Like that to like someone else to break that record.

>> She would very much like someone else to break that record.

>> 149 calls in a year.

But 60 is a lot of calls, and that is a lot of time.

Have you had any moment where you questioned continuing to do this?

Rebecca.

>> No, I don't have any questions about it.

I'm ready to just keep continuing on even into my nursing career.

Like whatever free time I have, I'm willing to give up to serve communities.

>> Do you remember the first call?

>> my first fire call was the barn fire as well.

I can't really exactly remember my first EMS call, but that adrenaline rush is definitely there.

>> What have you learned?

Anything that surprised you in the field?

>> not quite yet.

There's a lot of things that make sense now.

Like you'd be like, oh, why wouldn't you do it this way?

But then they show you a more logical reason to be like, oh.

>> Is there an example you just talking about.

>> How you just in general.

>> How people, how you treat people and how you deal with maybe different challenges in the field?

>> I think one of the things that we often coach our, our new members on which is when those tones drop, there's that adrenaline rush that you get out the door, you want to get there, you want to help people.

And what do we tell you guys all the time?

>> Take a breath.

>> Take a take a deep breath.

>> Stop and take a deep breath.

Yeah.

Because and it's, it's little tricks like that.

It's that can be the most important thing because getting out the door fast.

Yes, it's important, but getting there safely, getting there efficiently, and providing the best level of care is what we need people to do.

And taking that extra couple seconds to take a breath, oxygenate your system.

Let your brain start thinking about, okay, what is it that I heard on the message?

What did dispatch give us?

What do I know from that?

What might it be other than that?

Because the information that dispatch gets is not always what we find on scene.

and preparing yourself as you get there to a call.

>> Well, Bill, you've probably seen more than, than most in terms of the the backgrounds of the volunteers, but this one makes a lot of sense to me.

Someone who's going into nursing wants to get that kind of experience.

I imagine this is a great place to go for people who have that kind of career in mind.

>> Absolutely.

And as Rebecca said, it shows both sides of what's going on.

sometimes like a doctor that's only worked in the field.

And I've had doctors stop at car accidents and for, like, lack of better words, they're kind of useless because when we get to the.

>> Bill, we're going to get letters.

We're going to get letters now, Bill, thanks.

>> Doctors that have never worked in the field, though when we get somebody to the emergency room, they are we've stopped the bleeding.

We've splinted the fractures.

They're kind of neatened up.

But to get them to that state is it takes a lot of training.

It's an art to get the person out of the car to to extricate the person from the car.

I'm not saying this is all doctors.

I've worked with some great doctor, paramedics.

that would volunteer.

but yeah, to see both sides of the the business, it's huge.

It gives a mutual respect both ways.

>> There is, there is.

If you think about a particular incident, let's just take a car accident because we've kind of been focused on that.

from the time of the accident to the time where a person might need to go into surgery or come out of surgery.

If you think about that whole sort of timeline the specialties involved at each stage are pretty unique.

where we are in the past, ambulance wait times could be up to 20 to 30 minutes, depending on how far away you were from a station ambulance where you were in the county.

Excuse me.

And what we have had to develop within our department is operating in what we would call an austere environment, a place where you're not going to get to a hospital in ten minutes.

So how do we manage patients?

How do we manage family members?

How do we manage the situation until the next level of care can get there?

And that's that's leading into what Bill talks about, which is just because someone is a doctor in an E.R.

doesn't necessarily mean that they have the same skill level or skill set to operate at those earlier levels, just like we don't have necessarily have the skills to operate in an operating room.

And so, you know, up and down the line of care, there are very specialized.

There can be very specialized skills to make sure that a patient's getting exactly what they need.

>> Bill, do you want to add to that?

Is that well said.

>> That's very well said.

And that comes from experiences I've actually showed up to people that have fallen off bicycles.

And the nurse practitioner, the doctor there is like they're bleeding from their cheek, but their leg is going in the wrong direction.

There's more looking at all the definitive injuries and taking care of the worst case.

it just comes with training.

Doctors have different training than we get as emergency medical technicians in the field.

>> Rebecca, do you have any thoughts about volunteerism in your generation?

and either what might increase it or what might account for declining levels of volunteering?

>> I think volunteering at this age is kind of not as common.

You don't really see it as often.

I mean, you do see a lot of junior firefighters that kind of stuff going through.

But a lot of people are just busy.

They think they're all busy and they don't got time to do it.

But there's time out there and you'll find it.

>> I mean, look, everybody is busy.

I want to honor, like Rebecca's point.

When people feel busy, they are busy.

Everybody's got stuff.

You are all eating into your own time.

Sometimes other jobs, sometimes a lot of times family time.

sometimes your weekends, your time off.

what would you say to a friend or a peer who might say that 60 calls in a year like I, I don't want to cut into my Saturday afternoon.

I don't want to get called at two in the morning.

I don't want to, you know, I don't have the time for that.

>> Well, it seems it's very rewarding.

You go out there, you see those people?

Hey, I need my help.

Okay?

Here I am like, let me see what I can do to give you the best outcome of where we are.

It's very rewarding.

You'll come back and you don't regret it at all.

>> Can you keep doing it?

If you don't get paid?

>> I think I could.

Yeah, yeah.

>> how long do you plan to do it?

>> As long as I can.

>> Well, let's talk a little bit about what it entails now, because we're talking to a particular department that's doing pretty well here.

There's plenty of departments that are struggling here and around the country.

If you want to do something like what our guests are doing, what does that path look like?

Not everybody's going to end up at a job fair or a volunteer fair.

So Bill, you want to start?

>> Sure.

The first step would be to contact your local volunteer fire department.

most volunteer fire departments, they got a sign out front that says help needed contact the fire department.

There's an onboarding process.

There's there'll be some type of application process, an interview process just so the people understand what type of commitment it's going to be.

At the very minimum and the example would be the basic exterior firefighter operations, the BFO class is the bare minimum that somebody would have to take.

that's about 60 to 70 hours in that neighborhood.

do these people have that commitment in time?

And then there's going to be at least one meeting night a month.

There could be a couple drill nights a month.

And then if you want to move on to different specialties, then there's going to be more of a commitment.

So you you focused in on the 60 calls Rebecca did, but that's probably only about 20% of her time commitment to the fire department because of the meetings, the drills, the training and things of that nature.

yeah.

So that would be the first step.

Just go in the door.

And my wife and I, I've kind of got associated with Branchport Keuka Park about 15 years ago, and she was deputy director of emergency management at the time.

And we actually joined the fire department to meet people in the community.

So it's a great way if you move into a new community and you want to start volunteering, it's a great place to start.

>> Awesome.

and then you want to add to the training component there.

Matt.

>> Yeah, I think one thing people should know going into this for folks who are interested, might want to start picking up volunteering with their fire department is knowing that it won't necessarily be a quick process because there is a level of basic training that's involved in it.

and that's to make sure that people are able to operate efficiently and effectively on a fire scene.

But it's also to make sure that volunteers, the members are safe on a scene because these there can be certain dynamics and all of these emergency scenes that are different than what we're used to experiencing in our daily lives.

And we want to make sure that everybody comes out safe.

but the training's fun.

I mean, this is fun stuff to do when we're training.

I mean, we get to drive big trucks and we get to flow a lot of water, and I get to jump in moving water and swim and rescue people for training and pick rubber duckies out of the water.

When I come out and find them floating next.

I mean, this is great, fun stuff to do.

we have a dive team, so they're regularly diving in Keuka Lake, so they're training for the dive team.

Our water rescue team is regularly out in the boats and in the water training.

We're regularly doing, you know, stuff like forced entry and smokey, dangerous environments for training, for firefighting.

I mean, this is fun stuff to do.

And so, I mean, I don't mind having my time taken up with this.

>> This is not something I intended to ask about, but it comes to mind as you talk about jumping in rivers.

Yes.

And doing all this fun stuff.

what's the breakdown in the department of men, women, male?

Female?

>> We are.

Well, we're more heavily weighted men at this point.

>> I would think that that's common.

>> I would think in from a sort of legacy standpoint, I would think that's common.

>> Yeah, yeah.

And obviously what we're learning from Lily and Rebecca, you can serve your department anywhere and you can be a phenomenal volunteer and do the work.

So I don't want anybody to think I'm implying otherwise, but just generally, Matt, there's been a lot of talk in this country about young men feeling adrift from their communities of of finding maybe masculine outlets, things that feel fulfilling.

and I can't I mean, I really can't think of something better.

What you're describing if, if young men feel like they're in that category, then this.

>> I, I think for any young person joining a volunteer fire department or volunteer EMS corps there's clear, distinct purpose when you put on the uniform, when you put on your pager, when you do your shift you know, even the 24/7, if we're just waiting for the tones to drop on our pager.

there is clear purpose to what we're being asked to do and how we're being asked to help.

And,.

I would also say that the impact we make is pretty concrete and pretty distinct.

There isn't a question about whether or not we've done a good job, and then we can go back and we can talk about it, and we can break it down, and we can talk about how we can do an even better job next time.

and it certainly helps.

I mean, this is not the reason we do it, but it certainly helps to have people saying thank you on a regular basis and recognizing what we do.

I mean, that's that's very affirming.

If nothing else.

It's very affirming to have people say, we appreciate what you guys do.

>> So let me you want to jump in there, Bill.

>> Yeah.

Well, I just want to add that remember, you may want to join your volunteer fire department, but you don't want to be the person running into burning buildings.

There's so many other things to do in the fire department.

and that's what we ask people when they join the fire department.

What would you like to do?

Something like driving the trucks.

Maybe we got people that they're used to driving heavy trucks, and they don't want to run into the burning building.

Very, very important job to have drivers.

they could join the fire department.

Take that basic class, and then take a 24 driver operator, 24 hour driver operator class, and just be the driver of the truck.

You don't have to be that person running into the burning building if you want to just volunteer.

But maybe you don't want to do an emergency aspect.

we also have like, presidents of the association and treasurers.

If you're an accountant and you want to serve your community, go down to the fire department, see if they need a treasurer.

There's a lot of aspects.

We also have an auxiliary that comes out, and the auxiliary doesn't have to be just women.

there's a lot of departments that have men in the auxiliary that come out on big incidents that will bring coffee and food and things of that nature.

So there's a lot of aspects.

You don't have to be the person running into the burning building that you see on Chicago Fire.

>> Alvin, are you the guy running into the burning building?

>> I haven't actually run into a burning building.

Aside from training yet, but I do have my interior firefighter certification.

So should the need arise, I would definitely be I would be for that.

>> And you have been close to a lot of them.

>> And I have been close to a number of them.

Yes.

>> What do you enjoy the most?

What kind of calls do you.

I mean, and again, I enjoy as a strange word, we are talking about people in hard circumstances.

Generally.

I'm talking about what gives you the most maybe fulfillment, satisfaction, enjoyment.

>> Taking a look at, obviously when we get called, people are having a bad day and seeing how when we showed up, we mitigated the bad in the situation to bring it to the best outcome possible.

And looking back and seeing how that has made a big difference for the person or the people involved in that had the the situation happen to them.

>> Rebecca, what about you?

How would you answer that?

>> I think the enjoyment of it is the aspect of knowing you did your best to give someone else the best outcome, like Alvin was saying here.

>> Okay, Bill.

>> Yeah, just helping people is really the satisfaction coming out of it.

>> Matt.

>> I'll take this a little bit differently for you.

>> Jump into.

>> The water.

Yeah, well, you're not kidding.

I mean, the things I enjoy doing with the department more specifically than what we've talked about is like EMS is really one of my favorite things to do.

I started as a firefighter.

I got my start hauling hoses and putting, you know, cold water on hot stuff.

And, you know, participating that way.

But EMS and the medical side of it is something I really enjoy participating in.

And then doing these sort of more specialty fields like water rescue is something that is of is of huge interest to me.

I really I really enjoy both the physical aspect of it.

but also the the thinking and the strategic aspect of, of managing those situations.

>> Well, that's obviously just in your bones.

You grew up in a rural area, right?

>> No, I didn't.

>> Tell people where you went to school.

Where'd you grow up?

>> Why do you do this to me, Evan?

>> Because I want to show that it's not just people who grew up in Branchport.

>> To be.

To be clear, I was born and raised in Nebraska for the first seven years of my life.

But when I landed in New York I ended up going to the Pittsford school system, and I did most of my growing up in Pittsford.

Yeah.

left Pittsford, like, you know, left home, like many people.

Do.

You decide to come back?

ended up landing in the Finger Lakes.

very fortunately.

Met my wife, got married and decided to stay down there in in Yates County.

and so my connection yeah.

Didn't come with my upbringing.

I wasn't raised in a family of firefighters.

I wasn't exposed to this on a regular basis.

I came to this much later in life.

Yeah.

I mean, I was 45 maybe when I started.

Well, 42 when I started, and.

Yeah, ten years later, I'm still doing this, and I'm.

I've got no plan on stopping anytime soon.

>> So some questions from the audience here.

So Mary wants to know what are the tones you keep talking about.

>> Oh.

>> So just briefly from just just.

>> To be clear for everybody.

So again, just to dispel misconceptions, I think if you watch TV and that's your only exposure to this, you think and many paid fire departments do this, you have a shift.

Everybody works a shift.

and then when a, when the alarm goes off, you of course, come sliding down the pole, jump in your fire truck and go out the door.

we don't do that.

We don't staff shifts at a department.

We're all going about our lives.

We wear pagers on our hips.

and then when there is an emergency, the tones will drop, the pager will go off.

And that's how we know where we need to go and what we need to do.

>> Okay, so it's that's the tones.

Mary.

I hope that answers that.

Roger says, I think the decline in volunteerism is due primarily to the fact that a lot more folks have to have multiple jobs to make ends meet.

That consumes a lot of time.

I think the decline in birth rates is also due to this situation.

yeah.

Roger, I mean, I it's hard to argue that point.

I mean, any time you have people who feel like they cannot work one job and support themselves or a family, that probably cuts into a population of possible volunteers, I don't think that that's arguable.

But everybody's trying to make do with with what they can.

So I think that's totally fair.

Roger.

Patrick says as one of the characters from the movie, Jerry Maguire says, show me the money.

Well, they can't show you the money.

That's why they're volunteers.

As we've been talking about.

There is a there's an ongoing conversation about perhaps more funding from different levels to have more paid or partial paid positions.

You're not anticipating that anytime soon, I assume?

>> Yes.

Absolutely not.

Yates County is very fortunate with our with the agricultural and the just the culture of the people in Yates County.

I don't ever see that happening in our area anytime soon.

>> Okay.

See, why says thank you for all the mundane, boring elevator rescues he's being serious, and I, I, I think that that's maybe an underappreciated one.

So there you go, guys.

All the volunteers out there, see why says thanks for doing that.

and here is from Ridge who says, I haven't heard it mentioned yet, but the other huge expense of carrying a fire department is the equipment, the cost of the trucks, the ambulances, the gear, fire stations, radios, et cetera.

it can be astronomical.

Not that they shouldn't have all the latest technology and tools, but he's saying that's it's a big number.

how often are you guys updating your gear, your equipment, your tech?

>> actually, our gear.

We we comply with NFPA standards, and we are updating the interior firefighter's gear every ten years.

rigs about 20 to 25 years.

we have a great.

So we're a fire district, and we fall under the commissioner's and our commissioners are great budgeters.

They just don't give us everything we want.

we we actually were very fortunate in branchport.

We pay cash for our vehicles because most departments will have to bond because of the great accounting that has happened with the commissioners.

>> Okay.

Well, I, I appreciate that one, Ridge.

A lot of great feedback.

Clearly interest in this subject.

So briefly, I'm going to give you all 30s apiece and you can share anything you want that might convince somebody who's thinking about this to do it.

You want to start, Matt?

Sure.

Convince me to do this.

>> I think particularly if you're young and particularly if you're interested in getting a lot of good, hands on, real world experience outside of the academic college world, this is 100% the way to do it.

It's 100% the way to get started.

The number of different unique scenarios that, like I said before, require not only physicality, but a real thoughtful approach and really understanding some unique dynamics.

this is the way to do it.

You're going to get a lot of really good hands on experience.

>> 30s Bill.

>> A young person that doesn't have any type of work history.

What a great way to build a resume.

Join your local volunteer fire department.

Do good by them.

You're going to get great references from the officers or the other people in the fire department.

>> I love that idea.

By the way, building a resume.

Yeah, that's that's a great point, Alvin.

>> So I would say the one of the things that you know, even if you have friends joining the fire department will bring you an, a sense of belonging within the department, within your community.

And will open up a world of the ability, a world to make more friends and develop a bond that that goes very, very deep, knowing that the person that you are working alongside, should the need arise, will have your back, regardless of what happens.

>> That's great.

And, Rebecca.

>> I view it as a privilege.

You get to go out there and just learn whatever you want.

Hey, I want to take this wildland class.

Okay, here's the funding.

Go take that wildland class.

You're going to get all the experience you want when you're just interested in figuring out what's out there.

>> And as we close here to be very direct, if we don't see a bounce back in volunteerism and strong departments across the country, depending on where you are, I shudder to think of what that means.

Yeah.

Don't you?

>> Yeah, I do, absolutely.

I think people if people don't already, they're going to realize how dependent they are on on their neighbors and friends and family members getting out there to help them.

>> Well, you need more volunteers at your department.

>> We have applications.

Please sign up.

>> Okay.

I mean, like, we've got plenty of Finger Lakes listeners who might be right in your wheelhouse.

Where do they find you?

>> You can find us at Be F Branchport Keuka Park Fire Department.com.

>> as I mentioned last hour, today is Veteran's Day.

but today on this conversation about volunteers and service, it's a good chance to tip our caps to everyone who has served.

So if you're a veteran, if you're a volunteer, if you serve your community in these ways, boy oh boy, thank you.

Thank you very much for that.

Bill DiFabio Matt Kelly Rebecca Case Lily Stewart Alvin Leid.

Thanks for what you guys do.

Thanks for telling your stories this hour.

Thanks everyone.

Thank you.

And from all of us at Connections.

Thank you for watching.

Thank you for listening.

We are back with you tomorrow on member supported Public Media.

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