Fire Academy Graduates 14

By VERNON ROBISON

The Progress

A total of 14 cadets graduated from the Mesquite Fire Academy during a festive but solemn ceremony held at City Hall on Friday evening, May 19. The seats in the City Hall chambers were filled with family members, friends and city officials celebrating this important moment for both the class of cadets and the City.

The evening began with a presentation of colors by the Fire Department Honor Guard. This was followed by a performance of the National Anthem sung powerfully by Neal Stucky.

Captain Ryan Thornton, leader of the Academy Cadre, then recognized Cadet Austin Workman as the valedictorian of the class.

“It was difficult to choose,” said Thornton of the Cadre’s selection of Workman. “Everyone in the academy works together as a team. But Austin shined a little more and also worked to help those around him to shine as well. He worked hard for it and it is well deserved.”

Workman spoke briefly of the bond that had formed between the 14 cadets in the class. “We started out as a group of strangers,” he said. “Then, over a 19 week process – working night after night in the classroom and every weekend practicing what the classroom lessons had taught – we have now become a group of brothers.”

Each of the cadets were then called up, one by one, to be presented with their certificate of graduation from Mesquite Fire Chief Jayson Andrus and the other top administration members.

Thornton gave a few remarks after the presentations talking about the accomplishments of the class. He also expressed appreciation to his academy cadre, the city council, department staff, the cadets and their families for their support to the program.

Thornton specifically hailed the vision of Chief Andrus in being determined to offer a local fire academy. “Chief Andrus recognized the need for us to build and strengthen our department from within the community,” Thornton said. “Most of these cadets have come from this valley or from the Moapa Valley. This provides opportunities for local people to build a career in firefighting.”

In some closing words, Andrus told the cadets that they were coming out of the academy with a strong set of skills.
“Skills are important in our field,” Andrus then remarked. “But they are not everything.”

Andrus said that along with the skills needs to also come compassion. “No matter what difficult position you find yourself in, don’t ever stop caring,” Andrus said. “Sometimes when you’ve done everything you can, and said all that can be said; the only thing left is to reach out and hold a hand; or put an arm around a shoulder; and have compassion for those we serve.”

In an interview after the ceremony, Andrus said that, given current budget conditions, he is only able to hire one of the cadets to fill an open position on his department. But he said that he was bringing four of them on in a part time capacity while the city works through the process of finding funds to expand the department and open new positions.

City Councilwoman Karen Fielding, who was one of a number of council members in attendance at the ceremony, was pleased with the academy and its graduates. She said that she was particularly happy to see so many local high school graduates going through the academy to open up their career opportunities.

“Now we just have to find the funding to get them hired on the local department and keep them here,” Fielding said. “That is very important to close the circle on this academy.”