Fire Chief awards loyal volunteers
<p>Josh Matlock, Robert Kenyon and Katie Kenyon relax after their meal at the Superior Firefighter's appreciation dinner. </p>
SUPERIOR – Last weekend, the Superior Volunteer Fire Department showed its appreciation for the hard work of its members with a dinner and awards ceremony in the Superior Fire Hall.
According to John Woodland, fire chief of the Superior Fire Department, the dinner is a way for the department to show its appreciation for all the hard work of the volunteers.
“I hope to inspire them to continue supporting the community,” Woodland said. “These guys have all put in a lot of time. Last summer during the West Mullan Fire, a lot of them lost a fair bit of sleep.”
Woodland said the 24 volunteers put in lots of hard work during the year and deserved to be recognized for it. He wanted to reward them for their service.
The gathering was small and approximately 10 of the volunteers showed up, some with their families.
“We have some people that work second shift at some of the mills, so unfortunately this may even be work time for some of them,” Woodland said. “But by the same token, while it makes it hard for them to come to these things, it means they’re available at times other people aren’t.”
Food for the event was arranged by the department. A dinner of barbecued pork, pasta salad and potato salad was provided with a potluck of desserts.
After everyone had filled up on pork, salad and sweets, the awards ceremony began. Woodland announced the different awards and presented them to the volunteers.
The first award was for years of service. Only one person with a milestone anniversary was at the dinner. Mike Kenyon was recognized for his five years of service with SVFD.
The next awards went to the top responders. According to Woodland, this included training exercises as well as emergency responses.
Rick Miller, Robert Ireland, Ken Quitt, Donald Mellon, Steve Temple, Mike Kenyon, Dustin Jones, Dan Arnson, Sean Plakke and Mike Pfabe were named as having the most responses in the 2013-2014 calendar year. They received a flashlight, which could be attached to the fire suits.
After the ceremony it became clear the lights served a double purpose as most of the recipients began playing with them as soon as they opened the package. Woodland said he had planned for a multi-purpose award and wanted something they could use as a firefighting tool as well as in their regular life.
The top responders also received a certificate acknowledging their achievements and the dedication of their service. However, the certificates had to be returned and presented again later because of an error in their wording. The dates on the certificate marked the achievements as happening over the 2012-2013 year.
“I took last year’s certificate and updated it, tweaked it,” Woodland said. “Obviously I missed that part.”
The dinner has been a regular event for approximately six years. Woodland began the tradition after his first or second year as fire chief and the dinners have happened ever since.
The volunteers seem to appreciate the gesture.
The dinner is always around the same time in early March. Woodland said the schedule worked because he was able to look over the numbers and make the certificates. The weather conditions also meant it was unlikely the volunteers would be called away on an emergency.
“We’re usually not horribly busy because we’re past most of the weather events on the highway and we haven’t gotten into the wildfire season yet,” Woodland said.
Woodland wanted to say how much he appreciated all the hard work the volunteers put in. He noted they came out even when the weather was horrible. He wanted to acknowledge the sacrifices of time they made to serve and protect the community.