Jerry Crawford and Jarod Lindholm

Showing that volunteering is something that can easily run in the family, Jerry Crawford and Jarod Lindholm, grandfather and grandson, actually come from a family with 4 generations of volunteer fire fighters/rescue crew members. Jerry and Jarod both are members of Kingsport Lifesaving Crew- Jerry has been there 41 years and Jarod has been there for 2 years. Jarod also volunteers part time at Sullivan County Volunteer Fire Department. Both are originally from Kingsport, and both attended Dobyns Bennett High School. Jerry is a retired Maintenance Mechanic with Eastman, and Jarod is in Paramedic School at Northeast State. Jerry is married with 2 children. In their free time they both enjoy outdoor activities like fishing and camping, and are both members of High Ground Baptist Church in Kingsport. Jerry originally got involved with volunteering after an auto accident put him in intensive care for 4 days. It actually turned out that his future father-in-law was one of the people who helped with pulling him from the car that night. As far as Jarod’s entrance into the volunteering life, you could say his family had a lot to do with it- both his mother and uncle are paramedics, as well as Jerry. Their advice to anybody thinking about volunteering is that you need to make sure you have the time to commit to it, willing to put in some hard work, and need to have the right attitude about volunteering- but the best thing of all is that it’s just a fun experience to be a part of.

Gary Free

Serving as the Fire Chief at Bloomingdale Volunteer Fire Department, Gary Free has been volunteering for just about 30 years. He is originally from and currently lives in Kingsport, and attended Ketron High School before it turned into Ketron Middle. He started working at Eastman in 1973, and has ever since, most recently as Quality and Manufacturing Facilitator. Gary is married with 1 son, who is a member at Bloomingdale VFD as well, and also has 2 granddaughters. Outside of work and being Fire Chief, Gary attends Grace Place Church in Kingsport, and lives in the Bloomingdale area. When asked how he got involved with Bloomingdale, Gary says that his next door neighbor at the time he started was the Fire Chief there and talked him into it in a variety of ways, including CB radio discussions on their way to work. Gary’s advice to anybody thinking about signing up to be a volunteer is just to enjoy it- it’s a really good way to give back to the community and is just a fun experience.

Steve King

A lifetime member of Sullivan County Fire Department, and currently a part of the Blountville Emergency Response Rescue (BERR), Steve King has been volunteering for 20 years now. For his normal job, Steve is a Lowe’s Employee in the Appliance Section. Steve is originally from Kingsport, attending Blountville High School then ETSU, earning his Bachelor’s of Science in Marketing, and now lives in Indian Springs. He attended Northeast State and graduated as an EMT with IV therapy certification. At BERR, Steve volunteers as an EMT, is the treasurer of the department, and also serves on the Board of Directors. Steve is married and has 2 sons, 3 grandsons and has a granddaughter on the way. In his spare time outside of everything else, he like restoring and rebuilding old cars- his current project is a 1965 Dodge Cornet. His eldest son became involved first, and Steve decided to join when his son turned 16 and could be a full member at Sullivan County Rescue. Then when SC Rescue was shut down, they took some of the members of SC Rescue to form BERR. Steve’s goal in volunteering is just to try and make the community better.

Ben Wexler

Ben Wexler, a Kingsport native who attended Sullivan South High School, is perhaps one of Sullivan County’s most heavily involved firefighters. While he is the Fire Chief for Warrior’s Path Volunteer Fire Department, his normal paying job is working as an Engineer (Driver) for Kingsport City Fire Department. In Sullivan County, Ben has been volunteering for 7 and a half years, starting out at Sullivan West Volunteer Fire Department then moving onto Warrior’s Path. In his free time he owns a landscape management business and currently lives in the Colonial Heights area. When asked why he wanted to volunteer as a fire fighter, Ben said that he simply had a want to help people and become an EMT. Besides wanted to give some of his time back to the community, he just says that it’s a fun job to have, and you build amazing families at the departments. The best way to get involved according to Ben is just to get your feet wet, because while you think you might know a little about what the Fire Department does, you have no idea.