Several awards were handed out at the 123rd annual Firefighters Ball, Saturday.
Jesse Shuttleworth, Ryan Murray, Samantha Horvath and Nicholas Shmon all received their badges and were sworn in as firefighters.
Four people were recognized with Years of Service Awards.
Daniel McKay was recognized for 15 years of service, Greg Acevedo for 30 years of service, Wayne Wells for 35 years service and Alvin Bogoslowski for 40 years of service.
Wells also received the Manitoba Association of Fire Chiefs Long Service Award for 35 years of service, while Bogoslowski received the Governor Generals’ Exemplary Service Medal for his 40 years of service.
Shuttleworth was named the winner of the Jack Carey Memorial Firefighter of the Year Award winner.
In his remarks introducing Shuttleworth, Dauphin fire chief Cam Abrey noted Shuttleworth joined the Dauphin Fire Department as a cadet firefighter through the partnership program with Dauphin Regional Comprehensive Secondary School. At the age of 18, he became a recruit member and he has grown through many challenges as a recruit.
Through all of this, Shuttleworth is always the first one to get truck checks done, showing up at 6 p.m. before anyone else arrives, when he knows that the number of available firefighters islow and there is other training to get done that night. Everyone is able to see that he is dependable around the station when it comes to duties on the floor.
As one of the nominations written for Shuttleworth stated, “as an officer I can always count on the job getting done.”
Recruits are issued yellow helmets to identify them on the fire ground, but the running joke is that Shuttleworth has done enough primary entry into structure fires that it has turned to a brown helmet. He regularly is on the first truck and has been one of the new A-Team, which is a nickname for the initial attack firefighters.
Shuttleworth’s extra effort has not gone unnoticed by the fellow members.
Shuttleworth was surprised to be recognized and was not expecting to receive the award.
“I did put the work in, but I didn’t expect to get the recognition for it,” he said.
Shuttleworth became a firefighter because he has always had a passion for helping people.
“I took advantage of it once I became of age to be able to provide for the community,” he added.
Shuttleworth will celebrate his fifth anniversary of becoming a firefighter in February 2025. It is the comraderie that he enjoys most about being a firefighter.
“Having such a great team to work with and being able to give back to the community,” he said, adding he sees himself as a role model for younger members of the fire department.
