Teens balance school and emergency service in rural North Dakota
Napoleon High School seniors Eva Weigel and Lily Moos volunteer as junior firefighters for the Napoleon rural fire department. Photos by NDAREC/John Kary
In Rolette and Napoleon, high school students are trading backpacks for bunker gear – and learning lessons in service, teamwork and courage.
The alarm sounds, and Addison Letvin is on the move. Within minutes, the 16-year-old is at the Rolette Rural Fire Department, pulling bunker pants over her boots and snapping suspenders into place. A heavy coat follows, then gloves, a helmet and a smoke mask. She’s learned to do it all in less than two minutes – because seconds matter in an emergency.
“It’s like a chain,” she explains. “Your overalls are hooked to your boots, so you just step in, pull them up and go. The quickest I’ve ever done it is a minute.”
A family tradition
Letvin is the youngest member – and the only junior firefighter – in Rolette’s volunteer department. She joined in April, following in the footsteps of her father, Tim Letvin, who has served for 15 years and once wore the fire chief helmet.
“My dad’s always been my inspiration,” Addison says. “I always said, ‘I’m going to be on the fire department when I’m 16.’ And when April came, I got voted on.”
Tim’s pride in his daughter’s commitment is unmistakable.
“If you can find a bigger word than proud, let me know,” he says with a grin. “She’s stubborn, smart – whatever she puts her mind to, she’ll get it done.”
For Addison, who represented North Central Electric Cooperative on the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour in Washington, D.C., this summer, volunteering is more than a family tradition. It’s about helping others.
“I’ve always wanted to help people,” she says. “It doesn’t matter what profession it is. I just want to help.”
As a junior firefighter, her role is limited, but essential. She can’t enter burning structures or extricate crash victims. But she provides critical support to those who do. She rolls hoses, sprays water and retrieves equipment, allowing firefighters to focus on the heart of the emergency.
“Even if we can’t be in the middle of the action, we can take on the jobs that keep everything moving,” Addison says. “Every little bit helps when you’re trying to save someone’s home or life.”
Recruiting challenges
The Rolette volunteer fire department has four junior firefighter slots, but Addison is the only currently answering the call. Tim pins declining interest on technology, busier schedules and fewer parents modeling volunteer service. Still, he says, the program is worth fighting for.
“If you have 10 juniors, you might keep four. They might become solid firefighters. And even if they don’t stay in the profession, they’ll carry those skills into life,” he says.
Tim says it’s about safeguarding the future.
“If that bell rang and nobody showed up, I don't know what would happen,” he says. “It scares me. It really does.”
A wave of youth service
Two hundred miles south in Napoleon, a different picture is emerging. There, high school seniors Lily Moos and Eva Weigel – whose families are both members of KEM Electric Cooperative – are part of a small, but growing group of students volunteering as junior firefighters and ambulance crew members.
Moos, 17, started as an emergency medical responder (EMR) two years ago, inspired by her mother’s service on the ambulance. She plans to take the next step by earning her emergency medical technician (EMT) certification, expanding the level of care she can provide.
“It’s a win-win,” she says. “I get to help people, and it’s helped me grow as a person.”
As an EMR, Moos records vital signs, helps comfort and stabilize patients, and helps assess the scene.
“If I can take even a little work off the EMT’s plate, they have more time to help the patient,” she says.
Earlier this year, Moos added firefighting to her duties.
“I signed up because I saw Eva and another classmate on it, and they inspired me to join, too,” Moos says.
Also 17, Weigel joined Napoleon’s rural fire department after a friend asked her to help make the leap less intimidating. What began as an act of friendship became a calling to serve.
“I was like, ‘OK, I'll be a good friend.’ But then, I saw it was an opportunity unlike anything else. I mean, I know there aren’t a lot of fire departments, especially rural ones, that have the opportunity to be a junior firefighter,” Weigel says.
Since joining the fire department, she has learned how to operate a self-contained breathing apparatus, set ladders, handle hoses and quickly don gear. Through a rescue simulation, she also learned how to navigate dark, smoke-filled spaces.
“We were blindfolded, and we had to practice searching in a mock house. We’d have to find things and bring them back or call out if we would find the fake body,” Weigel says. “It also taught us how to help people and get them out, because we don’t send ambulance personnel into a burning structure.”
On calls, Weigel refills oxygen tanks, retrieves gear and relays messages between emergency responders. But after she turns 18 in December, she’ll be able to step closer to the action and take on greater responsibilities.
“I definitely plan to stay with it, especially with the summer,” Weigel says. “I always keep in the back of my mind that I could go into firefighting as a career or volunteer at a fire department, because people are always going to need help.”
Out of the 17 students in their class, three volunteer for the ambulance and three are junior firefighters. Some, like Moos, do both.
“Before, there were definitely not as many people willing to volunteer,” Moos says. “But my class brought in a lot of volunteers, and I think over time, we’ll keep getting more, because we influence other students, and they see that volunteering can really help others and help themselves.”
Balancing school and service
In both towns, schools work with emergency departments to allow students to leave class for calls, provided their grades remain strong. But a new statewide cellphone ban has these young responders concerned – phones are often their fastest or only alert system.
“As a first responder, I have very mixed feelings on this phone ban coming up, because I see a lot of potential issues with it. Our school doesn't even know how they're implementing it yet, so it's hard for us to plan as a department,” Weigel says.
Despite the challenges, Addison, Moos and Weigel have a clear message for their peers. Volunteering isn’t about getting out of class. It’s about stepping up when your community needs you most.
“Don’t do it because you get to miss school,” Addison says. “Do it because you want to be there for people.”
Whether they pursue careers in emergency services or take their skills elsewhere, these students are gaining discipline, teamwork and a sense of purpose – and proving that in rural North Dakota, the future of public safety might rest on the shoulders of a new generation willing to answer the call.
___
Krista Rausch is a communications specialist for the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives. She can be reached at krausch@ndarec.com.
