Steve Gore remembers the first time he knew he liked being a firefighter.

He was riding on the outside of a truck on his way to a fire scene in Florida. “I thought, ‘Wow. This is cool,’” Gore said, standing in the station he’s called a second home since 1984.

On Sept. 11, Gore received “life member” recognition from the Indiana Volunteer Firefighters Association. He has served as a firefighter for 50 years, 35 years of it with Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department.

“Given the events 18 years ago, with so many firefighters that we lost, it’s really a privilege to be able to honor the ones that we do have, that we do have locally and that have been on the department for years and years and years,” said IVFA 17B District Chairman Heather McGlocklin.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]

Brown County is served entirely by volunteer firefighters spread over six departments.

“How many of you know what the length of stay is for a volunteer firefighter in a department?” IVA public relations representative Steve Nolan asked the crowd. It’s about seven-and-a-half to eight years,” he said. “To get 50 years in, 10 years or 25 years in is an honor.”

The first person Gore thanked was his wife, Steffanie, and his family. “I couldn’t have run around here nearly as long as I did without the help of my support system,” he said.

“You guys all know about the missed dinners, the missed holidays. We all got ready to have a big party and then we didn’t show up; they’re sitting there worrying about us, if we were going to come back in one piece. Especially on this anniversary of 9/11, we never know. You try to train, learn how to do our jobs, and things can happen.”

‘He earned every year’

Ask retired firefighter Kurt Young how to describe his best friend and a second doesn’t pass before he begins to describe a Boy Scout: Trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

As a firefighter, Young described Gore as knowledgeable.

“I always felt that scenes that he was in charge of were well run and that he had the safety of the firefighters at the top of his list. It makes you confident in doing what you need to do,” Young said.

Young and Gore volunteered together for 22 years. Young retired about five years ago.

He said Gore’s award was a testament to patience and perseverance. “He’s done an awful lot for the fire department and an awful lot for the community,” Young said.

“I think he’s just one of those people that I admire.”

Former chief Dallas “Dak” Kelp has known Gore since 1985. “I’m proud of him. I’m very happy for him. Some guys will weasel out the last 10 or 20 years. Steve didn’t weasel out of anything,” he said.

“He earned every year of it.”

Gore left Brown County in the early 1960s after graduating from high school. He served with the United States Navy air corps for three years and then as a reserve for three more years, according to newspaper archives.

Even before then, Gore enjoyed protecting his community. In 1956, he received a Patrol Button award along with other members of the Safety Patrol at Nashville and Belmont schools, according to archives. He was also a Boy Scout.

After moving away from Brown County, Gore was building airplanes in Florida when a friend called and told him he was going down to join the volunteer fire department in Vero Beach. He asked Gore if he wanted to come along. “I was like, ‘OK. That sounds like fun,’” he said.

The department was a combination of volunteer and paid firefighters. A year after Gore began volunteering, he was offered a paid spot. “I thought ‘Hey, let’s do this.’ I did and I worked there for six more years. Then I got homesick and came up here,” he said.

When he returned to Brown County he started a construction business with his brother in 1976. He also began a chimney sweep business in 1978, cleaning flues to prevent fire hazards.

In 1982, he joined the Air Force reserve as a fire protection specialist. For five years, he was on the crash crew at Grissom Air Force Base, which did crash rescue training and fought civilian structure fires, according to newspaper archives.

“We were a unit that would drop everything and go to Europe or any hot spot in our area. It was a 24 hour call-out. I got to go to Germany and work over there. I got to go to Spain, work over there,” Gore said. “It was wonderful.”

In 1982, Steffanie and Steve were married. She was able to go overseas with him the second time to Spain in 1987.

At that time, Gore was already active with the Nashville Volunteer Fire Department. In 1984, he was certified by the state as a master firefighter. He also earned instructor and inspector certification.

“I wouldn’t have the training that I have today if it wasn’t for Steve,” Kelp said.

Young remembers a time when Gore went into a house fire to fight it on his own, and Young and another firefighter were forced to stay outside because they didn’t have training yet.

Kelp remembers one time when a fellow firefighter walked out across a floor that had been burnt out. “He fell up to his armpits. Steve walks out there, cussing the whole way, grabs him, picks him up and brings him back. The guy got an earful because he was told not to go out there, but he went and got him,” Kelp said.

Well-deserved

During his time with the department, Gore served as chief and treasurer. At the end of 2006, he officially retired from fighting fires, but stayed on until this year as the department’s treasurer. He’s in the process of training firefighter Rhonda Ellegood to take over the bookkeeping.

“He’s still been doing our books and everything, which is a huge, huge relief for the department. There’s been quite a few times when things slip through the cracks, and they get to Steve and they don’t slip any further,” Chief Nick Kelp said.

Nick Kelp said he’s proud of Gore. “I watch people who get the 50-year pin and it has kind of an asterisk next to it because they didn’t really do 50 whole years, but Steve definitely did,” he said.

Retired state conservation officer Jeff Atwood has known Gore for about 45 years. The two worked together fighting wild land fires.

“Honest, focused, dedicated to the department and the people in it. Always has been,” Atwood said of his friend.

“The Nashville fire department has always been very helpful to not only the other agencies, but the community itself, and Steve is a big promoter of that and taught a lot of these younger guys the ability to work with the county,” Atwood said.

“It’s not just a firefighting business, it’s a people business, and that’s what Steve passed on to these folks. That’s why I came down here to watch the award ceremony. I was told about it and wanted to come down here to witness it because I have a lot of respect for him and his family, his dedication.”

After all of his service, Gore said he is happy to still be on two feet to receive his lifetime member award. In addition to fighting fires and being a chimney sweep, Gore has worked in real estate, run an accounting and tax preparation business, and served several stints in public office. He was on the Brown County Council from 1996 to 2006 and 2010 to 2014, and was the county assessor from 2006 to 2010.

He said he guessed he might be receiving the award at the Sept. 11 meeting after the department asked him what he wanted to have for the dinner before it. “That kind of sealed the deal,” he said with a chuckle.

He never did see foresee himself getting this award. “I really just went day by day, and it sort of happened,” he said.

“When I was growing up here, I watched people that I respected that were volunteer firefighters,” Gore said mentioning Keith Taggart, Maurice “Pods” Miller, Max Kritzer and “Peanut” King.

King ran the Star grocery store, where Gore worked when he was in high school. “They had a fire phone in the store and a remote switch to blow the old siren, so a fire call would come into this line and it rang five or six different phones at businesses,” Gore said.

“The drug store had one, and the grocery had one, and the old gas station had one. They would get the location, they would blow the siren, they would run up here and write the address on the chalkboard. Then they would go ahead and take a truck and take off, then anybody else who came in later, they just went to the address that was listed. That was the system back in those days before we had radios.”

The reward of helping those in need has also kept Gore in firefighting.

“I have the ability to do it, I need to do it, I want to be a part of my community, and it’s a good way to be a part of the community. Sometimes it’s a pain, awful, dirty and nasty and thankless,” he said.

But the times when a thank-you is given are ones Gore will never forget.

Once, Gore helped to rescue a college student who had been trapped in a car after a crash. The next day, he went to get a copy of the police report from dispatch, and her father was there.

“He just thanked me so much,” Gore said as his voice broke, remembering the encounter.

“Usually, you don’t see the people afterwards. My heart, to be able to do something like that and do some good to somebody we didn’t know –” that’s truly helping someone, he said.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Free education opportunity for volunteer first responders” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

After legislation failed to pass at the state level to provide scholarships to help cover education costs for public safety officers, Ivy Tech Community College decided to offer the opportunity for volunteer first responders across the state to get a two-year degree at no charge.

Volunteer fire departments across Brown County and throughout the state, especially in rural areas, struggle to retain the manpower needed to protect their communities. Ivy Tech has partnered with the Indiana Volunteer Firefighter’s Association to provide this scholarship opportunity.

“It is to address the shortage of volunteer first responders across the state,” said Steve Anderson, former president of the IVFA.

“Actually, nationwide, the number of volunteers has been decreasing. This is going to be a huge recruitment tool, but it’s also available for the retention of the current members as well.”

The hope is this opportunity will encourage more people to volunteer and get the state legislature to provide funding for a statewide program in the future, according to Ivy Tech.

The Volunteer Firefighter Scholarship program begins in January 2020 and Ivy Tech plans to pilot this program for the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. The scholarship will cover tuition and technology fees, but funds are limited, according to Ivy Tech.

Volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel are eligible. Interested students must enroll as “degree seeking” at Ivy Tech. The program also is available to current Ivy Tech students attending part or full-time.

There is no credit hour limit per semester, but students must maintain satisfactory academic progress, Ivy Tech states.

The scholarship cannot be applied to previous outstanding balances with Ivy Tech. Also, a paid firefighter cannot receive the scholarship. “(This scholarship) is intended for those individuals who work in another career, have to spend their own time getting trained as a firefighter or an emergency management service and don’t get paid to do so,” a frequently asked question sheet from Ivy Tech states.

In Indiana, seven out of 10 firefighters and emergency responders are volunteers.

During the last Indiana General Assembly, a House bill establishing a public safety officer scholarship to cover education costs at Ivy Tech did not pass. It was referred to committee. “What we need is as many young people as we can to get into this program. … If we can show that we have a lot of interest from our volunteers for this program, then maybe next year when it comes up again in the legislature we can get something passed. That’s what we’re trying to do,” said Steve Nolan, IVFA 17B public relations representative.

Nolan spoke at the monthly IVFA on Sept. 11 at the Brown County (Nashville) Volunteer Fire Department where Steve Gore received a life member award for his 50 years of service. Gore said finding people to volunteer to be emergency responders has always been a struggle, but it’s even more of a struggle now.

“When I was a kid, my dad had a regular job. Mom helped a little bit, but mostly she could do the house stuff, she could do Cub Scouts or whatever. But now, everybody and their spouses are working, a lot of time working two jobs, and it’s tough to have the time to do it even if you have the will to do it and the desire,” he said. “It’s tough to carve out the time because of how society has changed, but these guys (at Nashville Fire) are doing it.”

Anyone interested in this scholarship should apply to Ivy Tech if they are not currently a student and provide documentation proving their status with an emergency service. Find more information on the IVFA website at ivfa.org.

[sc:pullout-text-end]