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CoSIDA.com/CoSIDA360 Magazine Archive
Note: This story appeared in the Fall 2018 November edition of CoSIDA 360 Magazine. To view the full magazine, click here.
Member Feature
First Responders on the Front Lines
CoSIDA Members on the Ready in Their Communities
by Barb Kowal – CoSIDA, Director of Professional Development and External Affairs
Here’s a look at four CoSIDA members who serve their communities as volunteer first responders: Hobart and William Smith’s
Ken Debolt (firefighter); Limestone’s
Michael Sanders (lifeguard); Neumann’s
Jill Weigel (Fire Police Officer); Edinboro’s
Thomas Wehner (EMT).
They face heartbreak; they provide hope.
They are the first responders in our communities, the police, fire, EMT and rescue personnel who run toward an event or emergency — rather than away.
It takes a special type of person to be able to deal with the stressors and anxieties of being a First Responder. It’s even more impressive when people serve in
volunteer First Responder roles, and in our CoSIDA membership, we have many who selflessly serve in these important positions.
These CoSIDA members put themselves in danger in order to assist people in crisis and save lives. They’re often the first, and sometimes the last, faces everyday citizens, victims or patients see after traumatic events — from fires to near-drownings to vehicular accidents. Their volunteer responsibilities may involve managing crisis situations or working in dangerous or unstable environments.
We’ve highlighted four of the many faces out there volunteering in their communities, saving lives and spreading compassion every day.
Here are their stories from the first responder front lines.
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AWARD-WINNING FIREFIGHTER
Ken DeBolt
Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Director of Athletic Communications
“When I’m not putting out fires at work, I’m actually putting out fires. I’ve been a volunteer firefighter for 25 years. It’s a family business. My father and a couple of my uncles were firefighters. My sister is a career firefighter. Helping people in my community keeps me grounded and gives me perspective when dealing with a ‘tough loss’ or setback on the court or field.”
That’s the message from Ken DeBolt, an award-winning career volunteer firefighter in his native Geneva, N.Y. DeBolt, has served as the Director of Athletic Communications for Hobart and William Smith Colleges since January of 1999. His community is located in the heart of the picturesque Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.
He also has volunteered for an impressive quarter of a century with the City of Geneva’s CJ Folger Hook and Ladder Company. A seven-time selection as his ladder company’s Volunteer Firefighter of the Year, DeBolt racks up an extraordinary amount of service hours annually, going on 110-125 calls in the last year. Two years ago, he was on 200-plus calls in a calendar year.
“There is no typical day or week in the life of a firefighter,” DeBolt noted. “You could get eight calls in one day or none for three days. It’s unpredictable, just like college athletics — one day you’re on a burning roof, the next assisting with a brush fire or car fire, then back on campus writing a basketball recap. How to balance that? I have a great team on campus and at the fire house and at home, and they all help balance that unpredictability. At times my family will be sitting down for dinner and I run off when my pager goes off. At the office, I can run out and trust that my assistants, including (associate director of athletic communications Mackenzie Larsen will step up. I certainly try not to abuse it…after 25 years, I can judge with the dispatcher on what’s happening and what I should respond to while at work. If I’m sitting on press row and my pager goes off and it’s a confirmed house fire, I stay as I’m anchored to the scorers table. There are a lot of other good people willing to do the same thing and we trust in each other.”
DeBolt is a member of the truck company, one of three fire companies in the city of Geneva, that focuses on ventilation and search and rescue responsibilities. They all cross-train. As mentioned, firefighting is in the DeBolt bloodlines. His father, originally a volunteer as well, retired as a firefighter after 30 years of service and his sister, Michelle, has made the family business her career occupation in Geneva.
“I can remember as a kid, I’d jump on my bike after hearing sirens and pedal after the trucks. We’d be in our house with my dad and his pager would go off and I’d jump in the car and go with him,” DeBolt recalled. “I was putting out imaginary fires around the house as a kid, making siren noises with my sister Michelle and running around the house. It never got old to me. I still have a hankering for it all.”
In his actual job, DeBolt also is an award-winning athletic communications professional. He was the 2015 CoSIDA Bob Kenworthy Community Service Award recipient for his extraordinary volunteer activities. This past June, DeBolt received the ECAC-SIDA Irving T. March Award for outstanding service and contributions to the sports information profession.
DeBolt downplays the honors that have come his way, instead focusing on the importance of teamwork and service in both his SID and firefighting work.
“One of the distinguishing characteristics of being an employee or student at Hobart and William Smith is that volunteerism and community service are totally embraced here. And, in order to balance both worlds, we rely on collaboration and teamwork — they feed on each other. If anything, working in athletics helps me as a firefighter. I liken going to an emergency as the same as my game-day feeling. You get fired up, give your best, perform at 100 percent, win the game and/or fix the emergency.”
You might still be asking: how can DeBolt possibly balance his two professions?
“I specifically remember being at ECAC-SIDA and asking (Skidmore SID) Bill Jones and RPI’s Kevin Beattie — how do you find time for all this, for raising a family, for doing outside things? Bill said — you just do. And that’s the way I’ve made my way,” noted DeBolt. “So, with firefighting training done as a teen, I then became a part-time 911 dispatcher while SID, taking overnight shifts.
“We all pick and chose how we spend our time. How does KB (Beattie) find time to run marathons? Where do I find time to fight fires? Well, I’m not doing marathon training! But you do what you love and what you commit to.
“I never considered someone might have an objection to an SID volunteering and taking personal time. Firefighting takes up a lot of time, but not every volunteer effort is this many hours. I’d encourage SIDs to get involved, starting simply. There’s so much emphasis on student-athlete community service, so go and do the service with them. Ask, do you mind if I hop in and help out? It’s so gratifying.”
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LIFEGUARD: The Pool is His Passion
Michael Sanders
Limestone College, Coordinator of Social & Digital Media
“It’s in my blood. Growing up, it was a natural progression from being a swimmer on a year-round team to becoming a lifeguard.”
Being around the water is a life-long passion for Sanders. When he’s not serving as the social and digital media coordinator for Limestone Athletics plus serving as the media relations contact for seven sports (men’s/women’s cross country, women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s track and wrestling), you’ll find him at, near and in the water.
Sanders has been a certified, active lifeguard for 11 years and has been certifying other lifeguards for the last four years.
“I volunteer as a lifeguard at Limestone as I run the pool as the aquatics director,” Sanders said. “I also fill in at a local country club and the local YMCA when needed. I have practically certified every lifeguard currently operating in Cherokee County and have helped certify lifeguards at local pools and at nearby Gardner-Webb University. I just cover the Red Cross fee for certification and equipment, and my hours and time are volunteer. It’s my duty to volunteer for lifeguard shifts at my school. I believe in giving back — the school covered me to be an instructor, so I don’t need any money coming back to me now.”
Sanders notes that he also conducts between four or five certification classes per year; each certification process is a 20-hour class, so that’s almost 100 hours of volunteer training and certification he annually performs.
As to the biggest “why” he spends hundreds of hours annually volunteering as a lifeguard, the answer comes easy.
“It’s in my blood. Growing up, it was a natural progression from being a swimmer on a year-round team to becoming a lifeguard,” explained Sanders, who also was a two-year member of the Limestone swim team and a four-time All Bluegrass Mountain Conference honoree and who, at a point, was the school’s 1000-yard freestyle record holder.
“At first, being a lifeguard is a cool job, a good way to make money as a teenager. You don’t initially realize the seriousness of what you’re doing at 15, 16. As I kept working more and more and put my training into practice, jumping in and helping struggling swimmers and making saves I realized, holy crap, I’ve literally saved a life. It then becomes a serious endeavor.”
That sense of responsibility continues to drive him.
“I am that first line of help, and have a sense of duty and accomplishment and giving back to the world,” Sanders noted. “I’ve been successful as an athlete and in my professional career, and lifeguard volunteering allows me to give back to my community in gratitude for all I’ve been given.”
The majority of Sanders’ lifeguarding has been in the pool setting, although he also has worked multiple Tough Mudder/Spartan Race-type events that involve ponds, lakes and standing bodies of water.
Sanders recalled two instances of lifesaving and rescue — one in the water, one outside the water — that made a significant impact on his passion for lifesaving.
“My first save made a huge impact. I was working a mud run in Raleigh, N.C., and one of the last obstacles was to traverse a 15-yard wide pond which was 10 feet deep. The participants were already tired and some were struggling to make it across. One woman, however, immediately went under water as soon as she entered the obstacle. I swam over to the area I saw her go under and, with a group of her friends shouting at me to help her, I dove under and made an appropriate save to bring her back to the surface. Luckily she was still conscious and able to breath when I brought her up, but that moment truly showed me the impact that I could have and really helped form the drive that I have to continue lifeguarding today.”
As Sanders also is certified in CPR/AED and First Aid, he recently found himself outside the pool assisting others.
“I was able to put a worker at an auto parts store at ease that he probably wasn’t having a heart attack because of the symptoms he was showing,” Sanders said. “I walked into the store with him on the ground and people all around just staring. I quickly took his pulse and monitored his breathing. His symptoms didn’t fit with a heart attack and I told him everything would be fine as the ambulance pulled up. I went back to that store the next week to see if he was ok and it turned out that he indeed had not had a heart attack but instead had strained his pectoral muscle pretty bad. Knowing I was able to make an impact away from pool settings reaffirmed my commitment to rescue.”
When asked how he, as a first responder, deals with the anxieties and the aftermath of being in a life-or-death situation, Sanders talked about focusing on the moment.
“The worst thing that I have dealt with was performing CPR on an unconscious infant in a grocery store. The stress of having the whole store staring at you and a hysterical mother beside you can certainly take a toll on your mental status,” he explained. “Fortunately, I was able to remove the blockage from that child’s throat and get her breathing again before the paramedics arrived.
“For me, the anxieties and stresses that are brought on by working as a first responder are handled by always having that notion in the back of your mind that you’re making a difference. Parents often put sole responsibility of protecting their child’s life in the water on the lifeguard. Knowing that at any moment I’ll need to react can cause some anxiety, but when you realize the impact that you are the first line of defense all those thoughts go out the window and you focus on the moment at hand, which helps me to not reminisce on the tougher rescues I’ve had to make.”
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EMT Travels
Thomas Wehner
Edinboro University, Sports Information Graduate Assistant
“I’ve always wanted to help people, and help people learn.”
For Thomas Wehner, the pull to be an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) was realized in high school — once he got over his fear of blood — and came to reality a few years ago.
Through the push and pull of a career which saw him start out in sports information, then leave the field for a successful teaching and coaching career before his passion for athletic communications pulled him back into the profession, Wehner discovered another strong interest — becoming a volunteer EMT.
“I’ve always wanted to help people, and help people learn,” said Wehner, who is now getting his second master’s degree at Edinboro. “I was a student athletic trainer in high school — and once I got over my fear of seeing blood, I was on my way to really helping people. Having medical knowledge is important to me. Sometimes at a campus event, there’s not an athletic trainer around and I can reassure people. In the community, I’m able to help someone in their time of need. That gives me that really, really good feeling.”
Wehner arrived at Edinboro in the summer of 2017 after spending six years teaching and coaching varsity boys tennis, football and golf in Loudoun and Caroline counties in Virginia. Never straying far from media relations, he also served as the football team’s defacto SID, coordinating video, filming, social media, website, media outreach, graphic design, and other technical aspects of the program.
His second master’s degree is in communication studies; the first was in curriculum and instruction from Tennessee Tech, where he previously served in sports information under (recently-retired) Rob Schabert. As an undergraduate at Ferrum College, he was a work study student for current SID Gary Holden
Four summers ago, he embarked on his EMT training, taking accelerated classes while balancing the demands of two-a-day football practices.
“As I was teaching and coaching in high school, I committed to a pretty intensive summer EMT training schedule from June through August instead of spreading out training over a six-month period,” Wehner said.
“Classes were during the week and 7-8 hours on Saturdays. During August I was still coaching and in football two-a-days I’d start at 8 a.m. with football, leave at 3:30, have class 5-9 at night and then go home, get up for football practice and do it all over again. But I never regretted it.”
After training, Wehner began working at the Remington Volunteer Fire & Rescue Department in Remington, Va., close to his high school job.
Incredibly, despite his move to Pennsylvania, he continues to volunteer at Remington — a SIX-HOUR one-way trip from Edinboro.
“Since my move to Edinboro, I’m on an educational leave of absence and, with permission of the Remington chief, can still run calls when I’m home. Before going to the 2018 CoSIDA Convention I drove down and volunteered for two night shifts. Remington has a career staff on call 24/7, and I volunteer when possible. When I was local, I’d easily put in 25 hours per month to maintain my active status.”
Wehner holds an EMT-B (basic) license which allows him to run calls, and assist paramedics. He cannot administrator drugs. He has his Advanced/Intermediate Life Support status, and an Emergency Vehicle Operation Certification Class 2 license to drive the ambulances. A Class 3 license would allow him to drive the fire engines, something he is not really interested in.
“I like to be on the EMS side, as we get a lot of calls,” said Wehner. “For right now, my EMT-B works for what I do. I can see myself training more, but paramedics are career-based and I believe athletic communications is my career path.”
Balancing his SID work with volunteer hours six hours away is a challenge Wehner is happy to meet.
“I currently volunteer on breaks and whenever I am back in Virginia. Remington has been absolutely fantastic and flexible with my schedule. I have to maintain my CPR/AED for Professionals and EMT-B certifications. One way that I help get my CE credit hours is to volunteer to serve as a test patient for candidates looking to get certified. And, yes, I do drive to Virginia to do that. I essentially get moulaged (mock injuries for training) and have EMT students come and go through a checklist of skills and assessment. It’s definitely fun and I get to see how well-prepared people are.”
Certain emergency calls cemented Wehner’s love for EMT work.
“Going to certain scenes raised my level of commitment. The first suicide call I went on was a gunshot suicide. That really hit me,” Wehner said. “When we were riding back, I didn’t say a word. My lieutenant asked if I was OK and I said, honestly, I didn’t know. He and I talked for one hour and he was fantastic with me, guiding me through it. I learned that things are going to affect you but if you give comforting words to a patient or a family member…it helps. That call showed me that you have to keep going.
“Recently, we came upon a hemophiliac who was drinking and punched through glass. From the scene to the hospital, and for 50 minutes in the trauma room, I held a pressure point near his armpit. It was very hands-on; a little thing that could make a huge difference. We didn’t necessarily learn about that type of pressure point help in our training, but on site you just do it. All of these experiences makes me realize I love helping people. Sports and history and research are my first love, but this EMT work is something that I truly want to be part of.”
When he thinks about relocating for a full-time job, continuing his EMT work is a priority.
“I’d want to continue serving as an EMT once I settle into a new job. There’s probation time when you relocate, and I look forward to figuring out how to balance the commitments of a new job with my EMT work. EMTs are a great fraternity. People are always willing to help you learn, help you decompress. We’re always asking, did I do this right? What could we or I have done better? You get feedback and encouragement and it makes you a better volunteer, a better person.”
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LONG-TIME FIRE POLICE OFFICER
Jill Weigel
Neumann University, Athletic Communications Director
“I’ve been part of the fire company since I was born.”
What, you ask, exactly are Fire Police Officers? They are dedicated volunteers vital to the operations of firefighters, EMTs and the police department at an incident. They respond to emergencies providing traffic and scene control, protecting the other first responders and the public at fires, auto accidents and other emergencies.
Fire Police Officers are found in only 11 states, including Pennsylvania. And one of those dedicated Fire Police Officers is Pennsylvania resident Jill Weigel, who has served in that volunteer role for the last 14 years.
Weigel balances the demands of her volunteer position while holding down the role of Athletics Communications Director at Neumann University in Aston, 45 minutes southwest of Philadelphia. For the last decade, she’s overseen the publicity of all 24 of the Knights’ NCAA Division III athletic programs.
“Fire police are the first people the public has contact with during many incidents, and I know people think I’m crazy being in the middle of busy Route 202, standing in traffic. But to me, what’s crazy is firefighters running into burning buildings!” Weigel stated.
She got sworn in as a Fire Police officer in 2005. Initial training includes Basic and Advanced Fire Police, emergency and non-emergency responses, traffic incident scene management, crowd control, HazMat awareness and National Incident Management Systems (NIMS) classes. She was sworn in as an area volunteer with the Goshen Fire Company in Chester County, carrying on a family tradition.
“We see people when the situation can be very traumatic. I assist our police department and respond to fires and accidents. We are the ones who shut down the roads and detour people around emergencies,” Weigel explained. “It’s stressful, the citizens are stressed, we get yelled at constantly, but we keep our composure, knowing it’s so important to keep traffic back so EMTs and fire fighters can get to the emergency.”
Like DeBolt, Weigel literally grew up in the firehouse.
“I grew up in the Goshen Fire Company. Serving our community is a huge family thing,” she noted. “My grandfather was the first chief at Weigelstown Fire Company (in Dover, PA) — yes, the town was named for our family and I am ninth-generation after it was founded. My dad, Gary Weigel, was the EMS chief and now he is the assistant Goshen EMS chief. My brother Nate is a career EMT based locally in Chester County.
“It’s in my blood. I’ve been part of the fire company since I was born. There are photos of me as a two-year old at the firehouse, at fund raisers, breakfasts, our fair. The firehouse is my second family.”
When asked how she balances the demands of her daily athletic communications duties with being a Fire Police Office, Weigel stated that “You just do it when it’s important to you. You communicate with your administrators and your staff, and you make it a priority to balance it all. Even though I now live 25 minutes away, I go (to an incident) when I can. I’ll always try and go when it’s a big call. I’m committed to Goshen and my volunteer time.”
In addition to serving in emergencies, Weigel also spends a tremendous amount of time volunteering for the Goshen department with the auxiliary and at non-emergency events, such as working at community days and fundraising events. The Goshen Fire Company holds the Goshen Country Fair each summer, which is the biggest fundraising event each year. She also is in charge of the 15-Week Club, an annual raffle and fundraising event.
“I continue to get supreme satisfaction from my Goshen Fire Company volunteer position,” Weigel noted. “Just knowing you are helping people out when the unexpected happens, or a tragedy is unfolding. I’m not necessarily helping with the rescue but doing whatever I can do to raise funds and, in emergencies, help make an awful situation better for the citizens in my community.”
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Long-time award-winning fight fighter DeBolt. Sanders parlaying his love around water into lifeguard opportunities. Weigel upholding her family’s volunteer history as her community’s fire police officer. Wehner traveling six hours one way to serve as an EMT in a community he loves.
As a first responder, you never know what type of situation you might walk into, or who you’ll meet along the way.
They don’t question if they have what it takes. They demonstrate critical thinking and composure under pressure. They continue to show resilience and high levels of performance in these tough (volunteer) professions.
And these CoSIDA lifesavers wouldn’t have it any other way.