SUBLETTE – The Sublette Fire Department always has a mission.

For the most part, they change depending on the day or if there is a fire or emergency situation in the area. However, there is one that has been around impactfully for a long time, bringing in a new class of EMTs and firefighters.

Wanting to take a proactive step to addressing the issue of low numbers and an aging roster, the Sublette Fire Department decided to try a first-time 10-week Cadet Training Program, which will conclude Sunday, March 16.

The department had 18 cadets sign up and 16 were still present at Week 9 on Sunday, March 9.

“It means a ton to us to see how many cadets we had for this program. In small communities, it’s either you let things happen or you make things happen,” said Sublette Assistant Fire Chief Nick Dinges. “We see these critical shortages in EMT and firefighter services. You look at 70 percent of the United States is still covered by volunteers, but that number went from 900,000 volunteers to 700,000 in the last decade.

“If you look at places like Amboy, Sublette, West Brooklyn, and Compton, the fire service is not getting any younger. I’m 46 and in year 28 or 29. We have to fill that pipeline to the next generation. We think it’s extremely important.

“The only way to do that is by actively creating the young people. If we wait until they’re 18, 19, or 20 years old when they’ve already gone to college, they have a girlfriend or boyfriend, maybe they’ve taken a career path, we’ve lost them.

“Collectively, the Sublette Fire Department sat down and said, ‘How do we get to these young people?’ I used my son Jake as the Litmus test. He just turned 16 and we thought to try a cadet program and see if we could be successful. I was hoping for 6-8 kids. We were lucky enough to have Quinn Leffelman, an all-state senior captain of the state championship Amboy football team, call me and say, ‘I can get more bodies.’ Once he did that, we had 18 sign up from Amboy, Sublette, and Byron.”

The cadets have learned different information in a manner of different ways.

They learned hands-on through training facilities such as Amboy Fire Department’s training trailer with a real-time fire situation with flames and heat producing temperatures 500-plus.

The young team learns how to communicate in pressure situations while maneuvering a water hose and saving the fire rescue dummy. It gives them the experience of dealing with the heat, moving through an unknown environment with 50-60 pounds of equipment and fire gear, and the complexity of adding more weight and duty by saving a person.

“I’m thinking about firefighting as a career. It’s pretty fun and pretty active. It helps out the community also,” said Leffelman. “It’s a lot of hard work, but you make a lot of new friendships and it’s a lot of fun. I’m forming bonds with kids I probably wouldn’t have if we weren’t in the program.

“It teaches you a lot. I had no idea about any of this stuff or the work that goes into it. It’s pretty awesome.”

Byron Fire Chief Andy Politsch has helped the Sublette Fire Department through the program.

It’s way of giving back and sharing his 26 years in the fire service as he began with Sublette in 1999 before getting hired in 2007 by the Byron Fire Department.

“This is where I started in the fire service. To be able to come back and help the next generation come through the ranks is invaluable,” Politsch said, who is a 1996 Mendota High School graduate. “For us, it’s like every job out there, we’re hurting for people. It’s great to see the ambitiousness in these kids. It’s a phenomenal experience for them and for us.

“I always tell them, learn from your mistakes. You want to make decisions because when someone doesn’t make a decision that’s when there is potential for someone to get hurt. The biggest thing is to make a decision. Even if it’s a mistake, you learn from it to where you won’t repeat the mistake.”

Although everyone was happy to see 18 sign up and 16 kids make it through the program, Sublette Fire Chief Kevin Schultz may have the biggest smile.

The success of the cadet program has sparked interest in a basic ops firefighter class with the Dixon City and Dixon Rural Fire Departments.

“Sublette has never done a cadet program like this. Around 15 years ago, Amboy had a very active cadet program,” said Schultz, who has been part of the Sublette department for 38 years. “Some of the firefighters who have helped with this program were in the Amboy program. This is the first time we’ve done it. We already have four people signed up for full-time on our roster, so we’re excited.

“For us, it’s all about getting the volunteers in. It’s super exciting. All of our officers and other members of our department have helped train the cadets. We get a little re-energized with this as well. It helps make sure they’re going to be trained the proper way to go on to have a healthy, safe career.

“We love every minute of it.”