Retiree.
Maple Producer.
Scene Support.

Name a job in our community and Mike Porter has done it: school teacher, chairman of the town planning board, president of the fire department (that was for seven years) secretary of the department (another 25 years) and now he’s president of the board for the Catskill Forest Association, and he volunteers at the hospital one day a week. A small rural town couldn't run without people like him. (He is also a cancer survivor who soon as he finished treatment rode his bike across the country. Then, soon as he returned, the town had a parade). 

Mike joined the department in 1974. “Back then I lived around the corner from the fire house, and I would hear the alarm in the middle of the night and figure I was awake already, the tones had gone off, so I should join.” Now he does scene support, managing all the communications at the fire hall throughout an incident. He communicates with 911 if the chief can’t get through, makes coffee, listens to everything happening on a scene to take care of the wellbeing of the firefighters. 

“From this chair, now for me, the work isn’t dangerous, but in the ’96 flood I was here in the firehouse three days straight doing comms. Same with Irene. It’s not convenient to be a firefighter and not always safe. You don’t always get a good night’s sleep, but anyone who can, should join. Fire service,” Mike says, “is the ultimate volunteerism.”