I recently attended Fire Expo, sponsored and entirely run by Lancaster County Firemen's Association at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg, Pa. More than 20,000 attendees flooded the complex grounds this year. The new air-conditioned building was a welcome relief, though one old exhibit hall still took on the "rural warmth."

Lancaster County Firemen keep the prices low and the show simple. There are no on-site training programs or seminars; it's strictly a trade show, but its sprawling displays of new products, technology and services from the industry, especially many serving the volunteer market, draw appreciative crowds.

It's been a couple years since I attended this show, and a few observations stood out:

• Waistlines of many volunteers are not shrinking; but
• The number of women in the crowd grew; and
• Young people involved in volunteer departments noticeably increased.
  

The booth for the Frederick County Career and Technology Center in Frederick, Md., offered information about a great program to recruit and train youth for service in volunteer departments. I spoke with three young firefighters participating in the center's Volunteer Cadet program. The program takes 22 students from nine high schools through courses developed in conjunction with the Maryland Fire & Rescue Institute and taught by contract instructors. The students receive credits and spend half their day in regular high school classes, then go over to the Tech Center in the afternoon to take five courses: EMT, Firefighter 1, Hazmat, Firefighter 2 and Rescue Tech (basic machinery).

In another area of the complex, the National Volunteer Fire Council sponsored a cholesterol check. According to the NVFC, more than 1,200 people participated in the five-minute screening at the show. A quick stick in the finger and five minutes later you had your test results.

The cholesterol testing is part of the national campaign to increase awareness of heart disease in the fire service. The NVFC's Heart-Healthy Firefighter Program is funded by a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (see the campaign's new Web site at www.healthy-firefighter.org.). Stress and overexertion, usually resulting in heart attacks, has been the leading cause of fatal injury in firefighters for many years, according to the NVFC, and more than 70% of the heart-related deaths were volunteers.

NVFC's Executive Director Heather Schafer encouraged me to experience the cholesterol check first-hand, rejecting my excuse that I didn't want to take away a test opportunity from a firefighter. The test does not require fasting, so she shot down that one, too.

Actually, the most painful part of the whole procedure was putting down my birth date on the form. The technician was as skillful as a mosquito. Five minutes later, I found out that I was in good LDL-HDL ranges, so I went off and had another funnel cake.

Since the NVFC launched the program in January, nearly 3,000 individuals have had their cholesterol tested at no charge. The NVFC will offer the cholesterol check again at the International Association of Fire Chiefs' Fire-Rescue International exhibition in New Orleans, Aug. 10-14. Look for the booth. If I can take it, anyone can.

Janet Wilmoth, Editor