Garden Spot /townlively
JANUARY 20, 2021
SERVING THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES SINCE 1954
VOL LVII • NO 5
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS IN THIS ISSUE!
Hometown Heroes - GSFR Chief Darryl Keiser BY ANN MEAD ASH
eporters are normally the ones who ask the questions in an interview, but Garden Spot Fire Rescue (GSFR) chief Darryl Keiser is happy to turn the tables, and he is not afraid of honest answers. “Do you know what the most powerful drug in the world is?” he asked during a sit-down in his office at Station 39, 339 E. Main St., New Holland. “Adrenaline,” I answered. “That’s exactly right,” said Keiser without hesitation. “We are all adrenaline junkies. That’s what gets (all the volunteers) in. We’re big boys with big toys.” Of course, it takes more than adrenaline to make someone serve the local community as a volunteer firefighter for more than 25 years. Keiser came to the borough in 1987 as a staff member at the New Holland Church of the Nazarene. At first, he and his family lived in Terre Hill. When they moved to New Holland in the early 1990s,
R
Keiser’s neighbor Shawn Mohler asked him about volunteering with the company. Having been a member of a volunteer fire service in Cedarville, N.J., as a teenager, Keiser accepted. He was appointed as an officer in 2010, and he was elected chief in 2017. Keiser devotes several hours a week to his position as chief, while working as a sales representative for New Holland Concrete.
Fortunately, during the shutdown, call volume dropped for both fires and accidents. “There were a lot fewer (accidents) because there was nobody on the road,” “There are fire calls, training at least once a week, and meetings two or three other nights,” said Keiser, who attends quarterly Lancaster County meetings for area fire chiefs in addition to GSFR meetings. “We have a bimonthly zone 3 (meeting),”
he said, explaining that zone 3 is a coalition of fire departments located in the eastern part of the county. “We all work together,” said Keiser. COVID-19 restrictions interrupted the normal flow of meetings and training sessions. “COVID-19 limited us for training,” said Keiser. “We went to station trainings (to keep up to date).” Fortunately, during the shutdown, call volume dropped for both fires and accidents. “There were a lot fewer (accidents) because there was nobody on the road,” recalled Keiser. “I was scared we would have more fires with people home cooking, but they were more attentive to what was going on in the house.” Keiser explained that the GSFR’s first-due area covers about 30 square miles and that overall, the number of calls dropped from just under 500 a year to about 300 for 2020. However, a lack of training and activity is not necessarily a good thing. “When you’re not doing what you’re trained to do, you lose your edge,” noted Keiser, who said that normal training schedules resumed in the fall.
Leaving A Legacy: Mentor Touches The Future At Bench Mark BY ANN MEAD ASH
Lancaster resident Nate Luvice is only 22 years old, but he is already concerned about the legacy he will leave. “I want to be sure that I leave my mark in this community,” said Luvice. “When people talk about me, they will say that (I) made a change.” Luvice is a full-time mentor and student services coordinator with Bench Mark, a program located on East Liberty Street in Lancaster city See Bench Mark pg 4
Garden Spot Fire Rescue chief Darryl Keiser has been volunteering with the organization since 1992.
Virtual Class - In-Person Project BY ANN MEAD ASH
When area resident Brandon Bixler graduated from Garden Spot High School in 2019, he knew he would be taking a gap year to serve as a state officer for Pennsylvania FFA. What he did not know is that his first semester at Penn State University in the fall of 2020 would be completed from his home in New Holland due to COVID-19 restrictions. As part of his major in agricultur-
al and extension education with a minor in international agriculture, one of Bixler’s virtual classes focused on food security. Looking to give students a global perspective, the professor connected the class to a technical school in Ukraine. Students were also assigned to complete a project that would make an impact in the area of food security. “The direction from the instructor was that it was the student’s responsibility to come up with a way to make an impact,” said Bixler.
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Exchange Students Happy In New Holland . . . . . . . . .2 Local Author And Illustrator Bring Seaside Tale To Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Business Directory . . . . . .3 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8
See Virtual Class pg 5
House Of Worship . . . . . .12
Penn State University student and New Holland resident Brandon Bixler fulfills a class project requirement by volunteering at CrossNet Ministries.
Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . .12
$68 stays in
$43
stays in your community your community
R067643
Consider this - You spend $100: Big Box Shop Local PRSRT STD ECRWSS U.S. Postage Paid Engle Printing Co
POSTMASTER: PLEASE DELIVER JAN. 20, 2021
Postal Patron
GDN
See GSFR pg 5