Volunteer firefighters in the Red Rock area are celebrating the Fourth of July with a very different type of volunteers.
A group of young volunteers with Americorps is traveling around the country doing service projects. This month they took up residence with the Silver Lake Volunteer Firefighters.
These volunteers are spending a month in our area, working on a school safety project for Washoe County School District. It is the sixth project they have done in about a year, ranging from environmental work to helping the homeless in Idaho California, Texas, and all over the West.
They needed a place to stay while they worked on this project, so the volunteer firefighters of Silver Lake offered up their common room, which has been fully transformed into to a summer camp style dorm for nine 18- to 24-year-olds.
"I have never stayed in a firehouse before," Americorps volunteer Eric Bachrach said. "We were hoping there would be a pole here. There's no fire pole, but we still love it. They give us lots of food, and they're all really great."
"They are a good group of kids, and they come in here and they're doing their job, and that's the main thing," SLVFD Chief Pete Rucinski said. "Helping the community, that's what we're all about here at Silver Lake."
Once they complete this project, the Americorps group will graduate from the program.
Written by Arianna Bennett
