Congratulations to Whitley County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Leach, who recently achieved a lifelong dream by graduating from the police academy.
He wasn’t your typical 20-something cadet either. He did it at the age of 38, which I found particularly impressive.
Leach told me that he has dreamed of becoming a deputy sheriff since he was 10 years old.
“I like helping people in general and serving great people. Most of all I want to inspire people. Don’t give up on your dreams,” Leach said.
Want to become a chef or a published author or a firefighter?
Just remember that if you are willing to put in the work, it usually isn’t too late to make your dreams happen.
Now to touch on a few other topics before I conclude this column.
• Speaking of firefighters, Woodbine Fire and Rescue recently got a $10,000 grant from the State Farm and the National Volunteer Council. State Farm is giving out the grants to 100 fire departments nationwide as part of the inaugural State Farm Good Neighbor Firefighter Safety Program.
Fighting fires isn’t cheap. The equipment is expensive. It costs thousands of dollars just to outfit a single firefighter, not including things like fire trucks, maintenance for fire trucks and the cost of other rescue apparatus, such as the Jaws of Life to name one big ticket item.
It bears pointing out that most of our firefighters from across the country are in fact volunteer firefighters, who don’t get paid to extricate people, who are trapped inside wrecked vehicles, or to rush into burning buildings.
These folks are often out until the wee hours of the morning, and still have to get up and go to work the next day.
Firefighting is harder than it looks with volunteer firefighters putting in hundreds of training hours each year, which they don’t get paid for doing. Also, it isn’t always as easy as just throwing water on a fire. Some fire can’t be extinguished by water, and you have to use fire retardant foam.
Before you cut someone out of an overturned car, you first have to stabilize it. Then you need to know where to cut, which may vary from vehicle to vehicle.
Another thing about volunteer firefighters, they often times spend part of their weekends holding road blocks trying to raise money to pay for things like gas, utilities on their building and insurance. Yes, Whitley County allocates some funding each year for its volunteer fire departments, but it isn’t nearly enough to cover most of the expenses.
When you see one of our volunteer fire departments at a road block please give, or better yet send them a donation.
If any of you reading this column and have ever dreamed of becoming a firefighter, let me point out that pretty much every volunteer fire department that I know of needs more volunteers. They are getting harder and harder to come by, so this may very well be an achievable dream for many people out there. This is provided you are willing to put in the work.
• I saw an interesting statistic the other day in a release from the Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA). Ever wondered how many kids play high school sports?
More than 115,000 participants occupied roster spots in KHSAA sports and sports-activities during the 2023-2024 school year, marking an all-time record. This was up more than 5 percent from the previous year.
