Greetings, mountain residents and welcome to the month of June. Can you believe that half of 2023 has already passed? Not sure where the first half of the year went, but it sure went by quickly! At WRES, volunteers come and volunteers go, and our Station One proves to be a capable community center.
We hope you were able to attend our open house in May at Station One. We demonstrated the many facets of being a rescue service, including firefighting, medical first response and our ropes mountain rescue techniques. It was a discovery day for anyone who has ever considered volunteering some time with WRES.
We understand that not everyone has the desire to run into a burning building with a hose so we offer other opportunities to learn and make a difference on the mountain. Medical first response is very important to our department, as it is almost one half of the calls that we run annually. And, we are always in need of rope rescue technicians and trained volunteers who can participate in woodland search and rescue missions in Prentice Cooper State Forest.
We also have opportunities to spend time around the firehall without ever jumping on a truck or answering an emergency page at 2 a.m. Just like at every house, we have to keep our station clean – including the kitchen, bathrooms, truck bays and conference room. We would not turn away someone interested in helping with this! We also now have an IT network and operations that have to be managed and maintained and could use some part-time IT expertise. It is not too late for you to consider any these opportunities. Just get in touch with us, and we will be happy to work with you to make you a part of the team.
So, while we are looking to add new members, we are also very sad to see one of our members leave the department. Patrick Stoker and his wife are moving out of state, and we are sad to lose him, but wish him well on his new adventure. Patrick is an EMT, a firefighter and rescue technician and is consistently one our top members who answers calls. He was also voted our Volunteer of the Year in 2020 and 2021. Yes, he leaves big boots to fill, and the rest of us will do our best as we bid Patrick good-bye and wish him well.
In looking over the last year, it occurs to us how many diverse uses there are in the community for our community center. We have hosted local clubs, school events and government planning meetings, and been used as a poll place for voting. Many educational classes have been held here, including a “Save the Hemlock” event where anyone on the mountain could learn about saving hemlocks on Signal Mountain. If you have an upcoming event and want to know more about having your event in our community center, please call Station One and leave a message and we will be in touch.
Despite our recruiting and loss of a great volunteer, if you have an emergency, rest assured that we do have someone on the mountain ready to respond, all the time, every day, night, weekend and holiday. If you have any questions or want to know more about WRES, or want to host an event for a group, you can always call Station One at (423) 886-5974 and leave us a message, send us a Facebook message on our page or stop by Station One on Taft Highway any Thursday night when we have our regular drill. But if you have an emergency - or even think you have an emergency - always call 911 for the fastest response!
We hope you were able to attend our open house in May at Station One. We demonstrated the many facets of being a rescue service, including firefighting, medical first response and our ropes mountain rescue techniques. It was a discovery day for anyone who has ever considered volunteering some time with WRES.
We understand that not everyone has the desire to run into a burning building with a hose so we offer other opportunities to learn and make a difference on the mountain. Medical first response is very important to our department, as it is almost one half of the calls that we run annually. And, we are always in need of rope rescue technicians and trained volunteers who can participate in woodland search and rescue missions in Prentice Cooper State Forest.
We also have opportunities to spend time around the firehall without ever jumping on a truck or answering an emergency page at 2 a.m. Just like at every house, we have to keep our station clean – including the kitchen, bathrooms, truck bays and conference room. We would not turn away someone interested in helping with this! We also now have an IT network and operations that have to be managed and maintained and could use some part-time IT expertise. It is not too late for you to consider any these opportunities. Just get in touch with us, and we will be happy to work with you to make you a part of the team.
So, while we are looking to add new members, we are also very sad to see one of our members leave the department. Patrick Stoker and his wife are moving out of state, and we are sad to lose him, but wish him well on his new adventure. Patrick is an EMT, a firefighter and rescue technician and is consistently one our top members who answers calls. He was also voted our Volunteer of the Year in 2020 and 2021. Yes, he leaves big boots to fill, and the rest of us will do our best as we bid Patrick good-bye and wish him well.
In looking over the last year, it occurs to us how many diverse uses there are in the community for our community center. We have hosted local clubs, school events and government planning meetings, and been used as a poll place for voting. Many educational classes have been held here, including a “Save the Hemlock” event where anyone on the mountain could learn about saving hemlocks on Signal Mountain. If you have an upcoming event and want to know more about having your event in our community center, please call Station One and leave a message and we will be in touch.
Despite our recruiting and loss of a great volunteer, if you have an emergency, rest assured that we do have someone on the mountain ready to respond, all the time, every day, night, weekend and holiday. If you have any questions or want to know more about WRES, or want to host an event for a group, you can always call Station One at (423) 886-5974 and leave us a message, send us a Facebook message on our page or stop by Station One on Taft Highway any Thursday night when we have our regular drill. But if you have an emergency - or even think you have an emergency - always call 911 for the fastest response!
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