FIRST RESPONDERS

     These last few weeks have been strange. I have been at The Shawano Leader for close to 12 years now -- started in March 2001 as a sports reporter. Just last week I submitted my two-week notice after finding a new opportunity in northern Wisconsin.
     I've had folks contacting me that I have spoken to in a while to say best wishes. I know I'll miss some of what I do, like covering the breaking news. The thing that has has made covering news easy to cover for me has been the relationship I've built with many of our first responders in our area -- from police officers, sheriff's deputies, firefighters, ambulance crews to DNR officials.
     This week reminded me of that. On Friday morning the Bonduel Area Fire Department received a call of a large shed fully engulfed. Thankfully there was no one in the shed, but I knew we needed a daily photo for the paper, so I took a swing out there. I was able to get up to the scene, get some great photos and talk with the fire chief immediately.
     I've known the Bonduel fire chief, Robbie Woldt, my entire 12 years here in Shawano. He was probably the first fire chief I met. Throughout my time here I've learned that you have to respect the emergency responders and they'll let you do your job the way you need to and sometimes they'll even help you out. They want to keep you out of danger and they can't be focused on you when they are trying to put out a fire, free someone from a car or anything of that nature.
    A lot of that stuff I learned from talking to Woldt and our other area first responders. In return, if they ever needed anything, they knew they could come to me, whether it be photos for training for for a photo album, photos for evidence. Sometimes I even just dropped off photos of the firefighters off at the fire houses for no reason at all as a way to say thank you.
    Please respect our first responders and don't forget to say "Thank you" to them every once in a while, they'll appreciate it.