Almost 32 years ago John Hobbs, Jr. and Chuck Schaitberger joined the fire department as high school seniors, age 18. I have known both of these exceptional people since I joined the organization almost 20 years ago.
Experience does count for something in this life and in the picture below you see it in action.
Every Thursday night the fire department trains. Sometimes the information is taught in the classroom, but most often it is a hands-on activity. Last night was hands-on and John and Chuck were asked to go bring two large fans to the scene of the drill. Fans are used to help move smoke from the building. The training drill was in an unused space at the Eden Prairie Center. Normally lugging fans any distance is heavy work. Here’s where 64 years of combined experience comes into play.
A shopping cart was located and the fans placed in the cart. You can see from the picture that John and Chuck were quite proud of themselves. Both of these fine people will be leaving the ranks of our volunteer staff later this fall. I know the department will keep going, but it will be strange for awhile without these two around on Thursday nights.
Experience in action!
Letting Fr. Tim Powers know how clever they are. That’s Chuck in the foreground and John trying to duck out of the way in the background. Fr. Tim is on the left.




