Eighteen Benton County youth spent two days in June learning to run a hose line, work a fire hydrant and perform CPR, part of a hands-on camp in Philomath organized by an organization that wants more local kids to discover firefighting as a career option.
The FRIEND Firefighter STEM Camp ran June 19-20 in partnership with Philomath Fire and Rescue and various other agencies and organizations. Day 1, held at Patrick Lumber Co. just west of town, focused on the medical side of emergency response, with instruction in CPR, first aid and “stop the bleed” training. Day 2 moved to Philomath Middle School, where campers suited up in firefighter gear and rotated through stations covering hydrant operation, nozzle work, wildland firefighting techniques and an auto extrication demonstration using the “Jaws of Life.”
The camp for youth ages 13-19 was organized by David Barron, a Benton County resident who lives in Blodgett and has worked as a professional firefighter in Portland for 27 years. Barron founded FRIEND — Firefighters Reaching Internationally through Education as a Nonprofit Delegation — with a mission of opening the profession to people who haven’t traditionally considered it.
“I wanted them to walk away with more confidence, doing something that they had no idea that maybe was totally foreign to them,” Barron said of what he hoped campers would take from the experience. “We also wanted them to walk away feeling that they could contribute in an emergency to their home, to their neighbor, to their community, to their school, where they’re going to be able to act in an emergency and help someone.”
All 18 camper slots were filled with a waiting list large enough that a handful of cancellations didn’t create problems, Barron said. Participants came mostly from Benton County, though one camper brought a friend from Lane County. About 40% of campers were girls, Barron estimated.
Fewer campers were able to complete the hands-on second day than the classroom-based first day, since some had summer sports conflicts.
Barron said the CPR and first-aid training benefited from the space at Patrick Lumber Co.
“They have a large area for CPR and first aid where we’re able to put the mannequins on the floor and spread out and be able to practice the hands-on portion, and then being able to use their AV equipment for that part of it,” Barron said. “It was perfect.”
He described the second day, with its gear and equipment, as a payoff for six hours in the classroom the day before.
The camp drew instructors and support from multiple agencies, including Philomath Fire and Rescue, the Oregon Department of Forestry and a few departments within Benton County. Firefighters who live in Benton County but work for outside agencies, also took part.
Barron said he tried to connect with the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians to recruit participants but that effort didn’t pan out this year, in part because families involved in a tribal cadet program had since moved for work. He said the camp also partnered with the Corvallis and Philomath school districts and drew from youth sports programs he and his family are involved with locally.
Barron said the “internationally” in FRIEND’s name is currently more aspirational than active.
“Anytime myself or any board members travel internationally, we’re always trying to make connections,” Barron said. “I still have international connections, but mostly it’s aspirational. It’s just we operate within the state of Oregon.”
The organization is run by a volunteer board made up of current firefighters and civilians, with no paid staff, Barron said.
Barron modeled the Philomath camp on a longer-running program he helped build in Portland, where FRIEND partners with multiple metro-area fire agencies so returning campers can build on previous years’ skills rather than repeat them. In Portland, second-year campers work with Gresham Fire and Rescue on urban search and rescue skills, including high- and low-angle rope rescue, while a third partner agency, Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue, focuses on wildland firefighting.
Barron said the scale of the Philomath camp relative to the city’s size stood out to him.
“The population of Portland is somewhere around 800,000 or 900,000, so we’re only able to put approximately 40 kids through the training program that FRIEND does in Portland,” he said. “So for us to be able to do half that at Philomath with a population of 5,500 is utterly amazing to me.”
He credited Philomath Fire and Rescue for the camp’s success, singling out Chief Chancy Ferguson, Battalion Chief Dan Eddy — who oversaw the camp while Ferguson was on vacation — and Capt. Viktor Bovbjerg. Starker Forests and the Benton Community Foundation supported the camp financially, and Eats and Treats and La Rockita provided lunches during the two days, Barron said.
Barron connected the camp to broader concerns about firefighter recruitment nationally. He said Portland Fire and Rescue, which historically has not hired laterally from other departments, has had to change that practice because of a shrinking applicant pool.
“There were 3,000 or 2,500 applicants when I was taking a test, and now we’re down to maybe just north of 400,” Barron said. “That’s a significant decrease. It’s a national problem.”
He said the resulting competition for firefighters can hurt smaller agencies that invest in training new hires, only to lose them to larger departments.
“Ultimately, what I want to do besides get these people certification to CPR-first aid, build up their confidence, we want this as a career option for our local community in Philomath or Benton County,” Barron said. “We have firefighters from all these agencies I was previously mentioning that live in our community, so these are family wage jobs that are coming available by the hundreds, and we want our community to potentially benefit from these career opportunities.”
Barron said he plans to bring the camp back in 2027.
“Our plan is to bring it back next year and get about 20 boys and girls certified in CPR-first aid again and give the new bunch of kids an opportunity to do some of the hands-on firefighter skills,” he said.
Growing the program further will depend mainly on recruiting more partner agencies, Barron said, rather than funding alone.
