You're in the middle  of solving a major calculus problem and your beeper goes off. Instead of glaring at you for disrupting the class, your teacher urges supportively, "Hurry, get out of here!" As a member of the Youth Firefighters Program, you've been paged to participate in an emergency call. You race towards the fire station (driving carefully of course), hoping you can make it onto the truck for this call!

As a fire engine screeches down the road, can you imagine actually being on that truck on the way to an emergency? Christine, 17-years-old, turned that dream into reality. She participates in the South Burlington (Vt.) Youth Firefighters program which enables high school students age 16 and above to serve on their local firefighting force like any other volunteer firefighter (with some restrictions due to age.)

It's not Girl Scouts or Little League. These kids are dealing with the pressures of major life-threatening emergencies.

This innovative community service program was founded in 1988 by a veteran firefighter on the South Burlington firefighting force, Gary Rounds. The program mission is: To instill a sense of responsibility, teamwork, community involvement and leadership in our members. We will train youth firefighters in fire prevention and fire suppression. We will promote self-respect, pride and values. The youth firefighters program will provide a challenge and give guidance for self-growth.

The program also has a practical side for the community. In many towns where a limited full-time firefighting staff depends on trained volunteers to drop everything for emergency calls, high school students are capable, trainable, and available. (Gary assured Girl Zone that teachers are 100% supportive of their students taking off in the middle of class!)

Christine with Fire Captain Jim Ploof and Firefighter Sacha LaScala

"It's not Girl Scouts or Little League," stresses Gary. "These kids are dealing with the pressures of major life-threatening emergencies. They need to be mature, be able to follow orders, and keep important information confidential."

People don't realize that a good portion of firefighting emergency calls are medical. Of the 1,800 calls the South Burlington department makes in a year, one half of those are medical emergencies. This fact, among others, drew Christine to the program since she hopes to become a homicide detective or a nurse. In order to get into the program (which has between two to four participants at a time), Christine had to interview with the three program advisors (with her parent or guardian present), supply a resume and school references, and pass a background check.

Once accepted, each participant takes a Firefighters Essentials course and is issued $1,000 worth of equipment. They continue to attend training sessions twice a month and must make a certain percentage of emergency calls. Although the program does not deliver a consistent paycheck, youth firefighters are financially compensated for their training time as well as an hourly rate for emergency calls they attend. They also participate in community outreach fire prevention programs on a purely volunteer basis.

Christine has been a Youth Firefighter for a year and a half and has loved every minute of it. "It's a blast," she says. She admits that she felt intimidated at the beginning but, thanks to the advice and support of a woman volunteer firefighter, she felt mentally prepared to deal with the male-dominated atmosphere. "The guys quickly became a wonderful group of big brothers to me, and I feel very lucky to have this second family to support me both personally and professionally," she says.

On an average call, Christine might make it on the truck to help with equipment, pull the hose, help the pump operator, or even run the truck while other firefighters are on the ladder or in a burning building (two activities Youth Firefighters cannot do.) Or she might perform equally crucial work in the dispatch room communicating between the firefighters and the police or hospital.

Gary Rounds praises Christine, only the second female Youth Firefighter in 10 years, calling her "very mature -- you can ask her to do anything and she'll do it." The physical agility and strength tests to enter the adult firefighting force often deter women, but these can be mastered -- as proven by Christine's volunteer female mentor who has been hired by South Burlington this fall as the first full-time woman on their small staff. "Overall," says Christine, "the Youth Firefighters program is a great opportunity to serve your community, grow as an individual, and get first-hand exposure to the excitement, pressures and rewards of a firefighting career."

Christine is doing a very responsible job for her age. Check out how friends can sometimes try to pressure us to do things we might NOT be ready to do in Inside Out.

If you are interested in participating in the important work of your local firefighters, call them to see if they have a youth program. (Note: you are more likely to have this opportunity in a smaller community where the fire department includes a volunteer component.) If your fire department is interested in how Gary Rounds set up the program in South Burlington, he welcomes inquiries at (802) 658-6710.