What has happened to the Community Firefighter?

I read something this morning that made me think.  What has happened to the "Community First Firefighter"?  Yes, I know there are still those of us who understand that we are here for the Community.  I see Firefighters, including Line and Chief Officers, who complain about having to go out of their way to do something for the Community.  I had a conversation with a co-worker who brought his son to our Firehouse to show off the trucks and let him sit in the seat.  The boy left with a huge smile and a memory for life.  This Co-worker told us a story about driving down the road and his son seeing a neighboring department (a very large department) and asked can we stop there Daddy?  So they stopped and knocked on the door (bay doors shut, front door locked) and a SENIOR guy opens the door asks "can I help you?". They asked if they can have a tour of the house and look at the trucks.  "No sorry we do not allow tours of the fire station and cannot let you look at the trucks."  The son was visibly upset, and will have that memory as well.  Which gets me back to the question, "WHAT happened to the Community Firefighter?"  I remember as a VERY young boy asking my parents to take me to the firehouse down the street from where we lived.  We would go down that house and the bay doors were open, the crews were in the bays either cleaning the Engine or doing something that must have been very important. Well, to a four year old, anything to do with a fire truck must be important!  The cool thing was that they would stop whatever it was they were doing and show me the Engine and truck. At that time I didn't understand what the difference was, just that they had a big red fire truck and an even BIGGER red fire truck! They would answer every "what is this?" and "what does that do?" question I would ask.  They made my time as if it was the most important thing in the world, even if it was just saying Hi. Special thanks to Santee Fire Department and Lakeside Fire Authority for those memories. 

  

We get a lot more calls today than back then, I get that, I just do not understand why a Firefighter can not take 5 minutes out of the day and let a little boy or girl sit in the officers seat and give them their own fire helmet that says Jr. Firefighter on it. We have the opportunity to put that spark in the next generation of Firefighters. Why are we not doing that?  Another large department here in Texas just did a testing for Certified Firefighter/EMT's and had less than 70 people test that particular day. Back in the day they would have had 700 test on that day alone.  Do we want the kid that has wanted to be on the Job his entire life, or the guy who says "Sorry kid the park is closed, the Moose out front should have told you"?