This was a very busy weekend for the fire dept. We ran on five calls yesterday and another 4 or 5 today. I even got paged out during church this morning! Fortunately, the pastor knows I am a volunteer on the fire dept so she is used to me slipping out in middle of church and then creeping back in later on. I felt bad leaving my son sitting in the pew by himself with all the old people...but I was back before Church was over!
The calls ranged from fall victims, to general illnesses and to self inflicted shootings. We have a number of volunteers on the dept..I think we have about 2 dozen members right now. But, as with most volunteer agencies, it is the same 6 or 8 during the day that answer calls. At night, there is a small group of about 4 or 5 of us that get up to answer the calls. Most people won't get out of bed unless it's something big like a large structure fire, a shooting or a big wreck on the interstate. My guess is people don't care to be involved in the day to day mundane EMS calls but want to be in on the spectacular stuff...especially if it makes the news. You see, then they have something to talk about with their buds and family.
Me, I just try to answer the ones I can when I'm in town, regardless of the type of call. I guess that's just the way I am. If I am going to volunteer for something, I give 100%..but that's me. I've come to the conclusion after almost 6 years on the dept that people are involved to the extent they can and want to be and there is very little the rest of us can do to change that. Oh well...*sigh*
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I've wrestled with this issue myself in the world of volunteerism. I finally came to peace with it. Just as I don't care to be judged, i try not to judge others. I am blessed with an ability to have and make the time to give back to my community in various ways. Others are too stressed, too busy, too overwhelmed, too lazy, too whatever to give more of themselves. i cannot walk in their shoes. I would never change myself as I would miss out on the tremendous experiences I've had with teens, Girl Scouts, religious groups, skill or craft groups, exercise groups, etc. etc. I'm not afraid to jump into new things, and I thank my parents for the wonderful job of raising me that they did. What a joy this life I lead! Now, if I could only clone myself.......
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