Community Heroes Day at Library Unites Public Service Branch Leaders, Educates Youth

Flanked by an idle airboat, three ambulances, and a police cruiser, Glasgow Fire Department's blood-red truck sits unmanned on Third Street South, its hard-hued exterior baking in the sun's midday slow-burn.

The driver, Rob Brunelle, stands a few yards away, clad in a milk-white GFD uniform, among a group of the other rescue vehicle's operators. At their feet a group of 20 children ages 4-and-up, crosslegged and, apart from one boy who takes it upon himself to crush a half-full plastic water bottle into the sidewalk, return the mens' mere presence with an unwavering symphony of silence.

"Have you ever been lost?" asks Clay Berger, the Northeast Montana STAT Air Ambulance Cooperative Program Director. "Ever been afraid? Ever had a time when you needed someone's help? That's what these guys," he says, gesturing to the stolid cadre behind him, "are here for today – to remind you they're here to look out for you, and all of us."

Conceived by the Glasgow City-County Library to complement its summer reading program's theme, "Everyone's a Hero," July 14's "Community Heroes" event brought members from each of the city's EMS branches together to impart their knowledge of critical procedure on a collection of malleable minds, offering both basic instruction and the opportunity to pepper them with questions concerning each's day-to-day duty.

"Don't be afraid to ask us about what we do, what we're wearing," said Glasgow Police Department's Tyler Edwards, one of three Glaswegian recipients of a national "Top Cop" award for his role in neutralizing a sniper at Frances Mahon Deaconess Hospital. "Just don't grab at it, though," he finishes.

Edwards, who also received a Montana Medal of Valor for his actions, and Chief Bruce Barstad were followed by Brunelle, who, in the wake of the previous weekend's wildfires, fielded the majority of the questions.

"We all work together really well," said Brunelle in response to a query into how Glasgow's and St. Marie's crews communicate the need to team up if the size of a blaze demands a greater number of hands to be subdued. "Everyone's working to accomplish the same goal."

Even the event's facilitators had quandaries. "When there's a power outage, how do you know what's going on in the community?" asked librarian Leta Godwin. Brunelle enlightened his pupils to the department's radio system.

Godwin also pondered how an all-volunteer force is able to maintain its vigilance during the day, when the men are occupied at work. Brunelle noted the pager on his hip, assuring that in case of a fire, each volunteer carries one, and that each chimes when triggered by a central system at the station.

After the talk, the children bounced between the curbs of the closed-off street, weaving from truck to truck. Some took turns being handcuffed by Officer Edwards; others were drawn to Deputy Chief/EMT Brunelle's dry-land operation of the airboat, standing at the bow and allowing the whirring motor's powerful wind to blow their hair out of their eyes and press their checks back with invisible, powerful hands. Brunelle, a 10-year veteran of the force, smiled as the boys and girls' laughter caught on the man-made breeze and carried skyward – Eastward, Westward, to the brightest valleys of Bygoneville and darkest corners of Who-Knows-Where. As knowledge engenders intrigue and leads the seeker back to the initial site of its eternal embrace, the circle of its plain-clad beauty perpetuates. As on Third Street in Glasgow, so with the world. All is well.