Should I volunteer or Not?

Ok, this is the 1st entry into my exploration of the volunteer fire department.

Living in rural Northern NM you depend on the volunteer fire department for any emergency.  At the moment they need more volunteers.  Last week an emergency call went out and only two people were able to respond.

I want to do it, but as a single mom can I?  After speaking to the Latir fire chief and her partner, Jona and Jane, I am giddy at the possibility that it is.  The idea is to have a support network for my daughter in the case of an emergency.  I take my daughter to one of my support people and go to help the community.  Apparently, I can say no to certain scenarios, for instance I wouldn't have to run into a burning house.  I could be the person working the pump outside.  But I would still be helping.  A fire department needs a whole array of support for instance data entry, media liaison, bathroom tidier and support person for domestic needs when people are on a long call.

A new grant from the Federal Government may help volunteer fire stations and districts get more volunteers.  Our district will be offering physicals, gym memberships, they had asked for fire wood and driveway shoveling as an incentive but the people in the Southern US couldn't image why that would increase interest.  My eyes widened when I heard that, fire wood really too bad...

I want to volunteer because I want to help my community.  I also want to be trained in what to do for snake bites and car crashes.  I called 911 a year or so ago because I had an allergic reaction to some over the counter medicine that I was taking I was afraid that it was going anaphylactic, it probably wasn't.  But within 10 minutes my yard flashed in red and white strobes and my house was full of my distant neighbors.  They helped me with no worries.  Since then my appreciation grew even more.

When I told my daughter that I was thinking about it her first reaction was fear for my safety.  I explained that I could say no to really dangerous situations and she thought that it sounded better but she still wasn't totally convinced.  We'll see what happens...