Orangeville City held an appreciation dinner and an awards ceremony on April 14 to honor the volunteer men and women that serve as firemen and EMTs in the community. Councilman Ben Orgill and Mayor Pat Jones welcomed everyone to this celebration by thanking the firemen and EMTs for their years of dedicated service. They both then thanked the wives of these men for their support of these volunteers. Awards in the form of a plaque were given to those volunteers with 20 or more years of service to the community. The Fire Chief Tracy Addley received special recognition for 35 years of dedicated service to the Orangeville Fire Department. Gordon Larsen also received special recognition for his 35 years as an EMT.
During the dinner of rib eye steak catered by Kent Wilson a slide show was displayed on the wall of the Orangeville Community Center. The slide show was of situations and events the volunteer firemen and EMTs had been involved including house fires, coal truck rollovers, rescuing people that had fallen off cliffs, getting trapped people out of vehicles, rappelling down cliffs to rescue an injured person from a ledge and lifting an injured person up a steep cliff on a rope.
The mayor said, “It takes a special kind of person to donate their time and efforts in the service of other people. As it is strictly volunteer work there is no pay for this service. It takes a lot of sacrifice and time away from home to do what these men and women do. Each of these volunteers have a special wife behind him. A wife that will let him go out and do this kind of service. Without that dedicated wife they would not be able to function.
“I wish the city had a budget to pay for this service but we simply do not have it. Little towns like Orangeville have to rely on volunteers like you. We have been fortunate to have the fire district provide us with some funding for a new fire station. We want you to know how much we appreciate each of you and know if we have a problem you will be there to help. Thank you so very much,” said Mayor Jones.
Orangeville firemen and EMTs are as follows: Tracy Addley, 35 years; Shaun Bell, 20 years; Shaun Jeffs, 20 years; Brad Reed, 20 years; Kirk McQuivey, 20 years; Greg Jewkes, 20 years; Dusty Butler, 20 years; Robby Riley, 10 years; Lowell Morris, six years; Tyson Hinkins,six years; Michael Reed, four years; Michael Tuttle, twoyears; Trenton Tuttle, twoyears; Ben Stearns, two years; Kory Nelson, two years; EMTs: Gordon Larsen, 35 years; Brad Reed, 15 years; Greg Jewkes, 15 years; Ben Orgill, 12 years; Mindy Larsen, 10 years; Mick Robinson, three years and Les Thompson 20 years.
Orangeville honors their volunteer fire fighters
"Left to right: front row: Les Thompson, Tracy Addley, Gordon Larsen, Mike Tuttle, back row Ben Stearns, Lowell Morris, Shaun Bell, Shaun Jeffs, Greg Jewkes, Kirk McQuivey, Cory Nelson, Trent Tuttle, Ben Orgill, and Mick Robinson."