Dozens of firefighters from four Pontiac municipalities gathered at the Campbell’s Bay RA hall on Saturday evening to raise their glasses to another year of community service and celebrate milestones for several among them.
Last July, the Bryson-Grand-Calumet Fire Department entered into a shared service agreement with the Campbell’s Bay-Litchfield department. Both departments now share one chief, Kevin Kluke, and one administrative body, the Municipality of Campbell’s Bay.
On Saturday evening, firefighters from both departments were called to the stage to be recognized for the many years they have given to helping their neighbours.
In attendance was Pontiac MP Sophie Chatel, there to hand out Governor General’s ribbons to firefighters celebrating 30 and 40 years of service. Every 10 years, these ribbons are added to the medals firefighters receive at 20 years of service.
Saturday’s event saw Alain Dubeau receive a ribbon for 30 years of service, which was accepted by Marielle Kluke on his behalf, and James Morin, Lincoln Smith, and Todd Vibert receive ribbons honouring 40 years of service.
Smith, whose father and grandfather were both involved in founding the Campbell’s Bay-Litchfield Fire Department, said the evening marked a significant milestone in his career as a firefighter.
“I’ve been running around with my dad probably since I was six years old going to fires. It’s just what we did,” he said.
“Myself and my two other buddies [Morin and Vibert] we all started on the same night . . . It really hits hard. I guess it’s close to my time to retire, who knows. But the young people don’t want us old people to retire too soon because when you’re a volunteer, you learn off the old guys.”
One of these young people is Vince Belland, who this year was recognized with the Junior Firefighter of the Year Award, an award given to a firefighter with less than 10 years of service, and voted on by all the other firefighters in the department.
Belland, 25, has been with the department since he was 18.
“As soon as I was able to join, I signed the paperwork,” he said. “Kevin Kluke has always been real close. He had the corner store in town here. He was my bus driver for the longest time. I remember one year I went as a firefighter for Halloween, and the name tag on my little firefighter suit said ‘Kevin Kluke’.”
Belland said winning the award means a lot, especially given that it comes from the whole department.
“You feel like every other member in the department is your family. You spend a lot of time with them, you’re training with them.”
Several others were also recognized for milestone years. Martin Shea and Nicholas Cameron were honoured for 10 years of service, Cory Dubeau, Scott Laporte and Scott Tubman for 15 years, Philip Stewart for 20 years, and Patrick Shea for 40 years (he will be receiving his Governor General’s ribbon next year).
