Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years
Matt Borovatz, Mike McHorse, Erich Berryman and Mike Orona pose with their 2019 Worland Fire Department awards that were presented during a business meeting of the Worland Volunteer Fire Department on Nov. 24, 2020.
WORLAND – Delay after delay after delay of their banquet led to the Worland Volunteer Fire Department (WVFD) finally being able to present the awards for the year 2019 at a business meeting on Nov. 24.
The original banquet for the event was set to take place back in March, but was unable to occur due to restrictive guidelines brought about from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Awards this year were given to Rookie of the Year Matt Borovatz, Operator of the Year was given to Mike Orona, Spirit of Service went to Mike McHorse and Firefighter of the Year was Erich Berryman. Borovatz and Dave Harley were sworn in and received their badges during the meeting as well.
According to WVFD Chief Chris Kocher, the rookie of the year is awarded to a firefighter who has achieved their Firefighter One status and met their requirements coming off of their probation period and onto the department.
"The spirit of service award goes to an individual that shows exemplary service to the community and are always involved in something giving back to the community," Kocher said.
According to Kocher, this award is important and shows a strong role model in the area through helping the department and the community as well.
The operator of the year goes to a strong engineer for the department. They help provide training and guidance and are always looking to improve others in different areas of the field, Kocher said.
The firefighter of the year is awarded to someone the department feels exemplifies what doing the job is all about.
"All of those awards are directly voted on by their peers," Kocher said.
Kocher said that they had held off in the hopes that they would be able to hold a banquet toward the end of the year but it was just unable to work out with everything going on in 2020.
"The show must go on," Kocher said. "It is important for those people to be recognized so we presented them at our November business meeting."
Kocher is hopeful that they will be able to have a banquet at some point in 2021 for the 2020 recipients of these same awards.
"It is one of the greatest opportunities I have when I am able to provide those awards to the recipients on behalf of the department, it is always a pleasure to see how firefighters grow," Kocher said.
Kocher said that the department is still continuing to train even if it is modified and said that the department is always looking for more volunteers.
