Being a volunteer firefighter hits all the right buttons for Shelburne’s Andy Blackmer
When Andy Blackmer and his wife Louise Lyndsey moved to Shelburne in 1989, becoming a volunteer firefighter was the furthest thing from his mind until he met up with a couple of fellas.
Thirty years later, Blackmer is still a proud member of the Shelburne Volunteer Fire Department.
“Overall its been great,” said Blackmer. “When you’re working with a great group of people, men and women, you get a chance to give back to the community, and also for me its important to help other people when they need it, so it hits all those buttons. Also, its just fun to work with the gear and be able to respond to alarms and do what’s needed to get the job done.”
Over the years Blackmer has played a number of different roles in the organization including truck officer, both captain and lieutenant. He has also served in an administrative role on the executive as registrar, secretary and president for 10 years. He now holds the position of lieutenant on truck 3.
Blackmer said he made the decision to join the department after meeting up with a couple of local fellas his first year living in Shelburne.
“I went sailing with them over the summer and realized as I got to know them a little better, I found out they were both volunteer firefighters. They invited me to join and I thought it would be a great way to get engaged in the community and to do a bit of volunteer work.”
With the town and much of the Municipality of Shelburne relying on the Shelburne Volunteer Fire
Department for fire protection,
“it really takes a team effort to respond to the alarms both day and night in town and out of town,” said Blackmer.
“It’s a challenge these days right across the province and beyond. Volunteer fire departments are struggling to keep their membership up," said Blackmer. “In Shelburne we have the capacity for about 50 members. We started the year with 39. Now we have 35. We’re constantly out looking to engage people who are interested in joining the department.”
Blackmer said the Shelburne department has members like Edgar Allision, Darrell Locke and Mike Locke “who have been around for a long time and are leading by example and carrying on."
"We have a number of folks who are older who have decided to join the department and that’s been great. We’ve also been fortunate to have a good group of younger folks that are staring to get more and more engaged beyond just coming to the meetings and the practices," he said. "They are starting to get engaged in the leadership of the organization which really is the next generation…that’s what’s going to carry the organization.”