Life moves, and our volunteers need to decide how and when to move with it. The average amount of time a member commits to active service is about 5 years. This is in part to many volunteers starting in their teens or twenties, and eventually moving into relationships and growing a family. It first begins with missing training and drills due to child care issues, and not long after, we see a decline in duty hours contributed. Eventually, the volunteer runs out of time to contribute anything at all.

 

If our volunteers are making their family top priority, then our station will make their family our top priority as well. Imagine a children's place within a fire station where a credentialed child care worker can supervise a volunteer's children during training, drills, and duty hours. We could keep our volunteers in a position to continue to serve, long after they would have normally turned in their uniforms. This space could easily double as a public fire safety education program for our communities.

 

The Bowleys Quarters Volunteer Fire Department has acquired land, and is in the architectural design phase to construct an 18,000 square foot, state of the art fire station. This will replace our current 75 year old building. 

 

Staying consistent with our longstanding mission of including family, the BQVFD will be constructing a mini fire station within our new facility built just for kids, but this is only possible if it is fully funded by our supporters. The children's center will be known as “Charlotte’s Station” in honor of Firefighter Megan Warfield who selflessly denied her own injuries and induced labor following a motor vehicle collision, to care for a motorist who was trapped in another automobile. Megan gave birth to healthy baby Charlotte less than 24 hours later.  

 

Grants and subsidies will go a long way toward building our new station, however can not be used for this special project. 

 

Please help us reach our goal of $25,000 by making a contribution today.