Blake Willis and Weston Sieverkropp stand at attention during the Wy’east Fire District Memorial on Aug. 24. The boys are looking forward to joining the department when they are old enough. At left, Paul and Francis Stolhand; Paul has been a member of the Wy’east Fire District for 58 years.
Blake Willis and Weston Sieverkropp stand at attention during the Wy’east Fire District Memorial on Aug. 24. The boys are looking forward to joining the department when they are old enough. At left, Paul and Francis Stolhand; Paul has been a member of the Wy’east Fire District for 58 years.
There are times, when I go out on a story, I find another story I’d like to tell just as much. Sometimes I can work a paragraph or two into an existing article; sometimes I cannot.
And that’s when it comes in really handy to have my own column.
When I attended the Wy’east Fire District Memorial on Aug. 24, I expected to take a few photos of firefighters and the new engines put into service earlier this summer. What I found were two boys who really, really want to be firefighters, just as soon as they are able.
I noticed Blake Willis and Weston Sieverkropp, both 11, standing at attention behind the crowd of attendees —mimicking the stance of the firefighters in front of us — watching the proceedings with interest. I later learned that Blake is the son of Captain Ryan Willis, EMT for Wy’east, and Weston is the son of Assistant Chief Tom Sieverkropp of Westside Fire Department, and a County Extraction Technicians (or, as Weston put it, “He works the Jaws of Life”). Sieverkropp is also a volunteer with the Wy’east district.
The boys are good friends, and are already active in the county — they help at the annual Pine Grove Rural Fire Department auction, and both have been out on calls with their fathers; they’re just not allowed to get out of the car when they do.
Although Blake admitted that one time, while out on a call with his dad, he noticed a woman who had fallen down. Since there wasn’t anyone else around to help her up, he did — but, he said earnestly, he got right back into the car afterwards.
The boys are planning to become firefighters as soon as they’re old enough, which, according to Wy’east Lieutenant Training Officer Tiffany Peterson, is at age 16 — student fire fighters must be licensed drivers. That’s standard throughout Hood River County, Peterson said.
Student firefighters are full members of the district and receive high school credit, too, she added. And there are several in the Wy’east District — including Peterson, Willis and Sieverkropp — who have “come up as student firefighters with the county and are still involved many years later,” Peterson said.
It looks like the boys’ keen interest in firefighting at an early age runs in the family.
At the barbecue afterwards, I met Paul and Francis Stolhand of Odell. Paul has been a member of the Wy’east Fire District for 58 years, he said. I couldn’t help but wonder if, many, many years from now, another reporter would be talking with Blake and Weston after the Wy’east Fire District Memorial, and hear something similar.
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