Cal Fire CZU Chief Welcomes Volunteers, By Jondi Gumz • United in

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Cal Fire CZU Chief Welcomes Volunteers

By Jondi Gumz

Cal Fire CZU Chief Nate Armstrong, who is new in that post, welcomes volunteers.

“We always need more volunteers!” he told the Times via email. “To be totally honest, they’re getting to be harder and harder to keep just due to life’s demands but we always appreciate the help with recruiting however we can.

Volunteers in training.

Santa Cruz County Fire Battalion Chief Jed Wilson explains who can volunteer, where, and everything in between.

How many volunteers do you have now? How does that compare with pre-pandemic?

We have a roster of 75 volunteer firefighters within the county. These numbers have been consistent year to year, we are always looking for new volunteers and are striving for a goal of around 100 volunteers.

What is the motivation for your volunteers?

The motivation of the volunteer covers a wide spectrum. Many are there to give back to the community which they are a part of, live in, while others are using it as a building block for a career in the Fire Service.

Sometimes after visiting a training, some find that it’s not the opportunity for them, but there are many other opportunities offered within the communities to volunteer.

These included, but are not limited to Fire Wise Programs, Fire Safe Counsels and Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT).

United in Solidarity: Asian American & Pacific Islander Community Plans Festival May 21

By Stephanie Barron Lu

The weekend of March 19-20, Asian American & Pacific Islander residents and allies across our diverse Santa Cruz County community hosted a vigil and a community healing event.

The vigil, organized by Shizue Shikuma, Kitty, Aimee and Takashi Mizuno, took place in front of the Watsonville Plaza on Saturday, March 19. Twenty people came out in the rain to support the vigil with homemade signs and tribute items for a community altar.

On Sunday, March 20, the Asian American & Pacific Islander community gathered at Wagner’s Grove in Harvey West Park in Santa Cruz. Fifty people, including local leaders, Asian Student Union leaders, friends, families and allies attended and spoke at the event.

The purpose was to recognize those who have been affected by anti-Asian hate in this last year, and to commemorate the victims of Atlanta in March 2021.

Lead organizers Akiko Minami and Stephanie Barron Lu shared that the values of the event were to promote safety, belonging, significance and community connection.

Local artist and photographer Lucien Kubo created a community altar and the were crafts for the children and resource tables, with the day ending in healing circles. These events brought the community together in mourning, and also in solidarity. Census data tells us there are upwards of 14,000 Asian identified community members in our county.

Asian American & Pacific Islander residents are organizing the AAPI Heritage Festival for Saturday, May 21.

Currently there are 168+ Asian American and Pacific Islanders across Santa Cruz County who are a part of a private group on Facebook, Asian Americans in the Santa Cruz Area, and more are encouraged to join. n

For more about the festival, see aapisc.org/ festival.

The Fire Academy lineup, which will go through 330 hours of instruction.

How much training is required?

The medical portion is 40 hours of instruction, and the Fire Academy is currently around 330 hours of instruction.

When does that training take place?

For the Fire Academy it takes place on weekends and on Wednesday evenings. Once completed with the Academy, volunteer trainings are held two weekday evenings and a Saturday every month.

Is there a form that people use to sign up?

Information on becoming a volunteer can be found on our website, www.santacruzcountyfire.com/, the process can be found within the volunteer opportunities section. We recommend that if someone is interested in becoming a volunteer that they visit their local county fire station and attend a training to get a feel for the opportunity.

Is there a deadline to sign up?

Volunteers’ recruitment is a year-round process, with an Academy being held annually around January through April. This Academy is conducted jointly with a majority of the other fire agencies within Santa Cruz County. This provides the volunteers an opportunity for a wider range of instruction and working with agencies they will work with on future incidents. n