Odenton Volunteer Firefighters Honored For Service

ODENTON, MD — Randy, Toni, Faith, Adriana, and Luke Sanger of the Odenton Volunteer Fire Company were announced as the recipients of the Maryland State Firemen's Association Family Appreciation Award on June 23. The award will be formally presented on September 13.

The Sangers are a close-knit family who are dedicated to supporting and serving the OVFC and their greater community. Each family member joined OVFC in 2019. Each member of the family is either now a responding member or in training to be one. The Sangers are not only contributing to emergency operations but actively support the administrative activities and fundraising programs.

Randy was a firefighter in Pennsylvania, moved to Maryland and joined the Anne Arundel County Alarmers where he served over eight years. He also volunteered with the County’s Mobile Command and Communications Unit as a communications operator. He missed being a firefighter and joined OVFC in January 2019. Even though he had considerable experience, Randy was required to update his training to current standards. He took Firefighter 1 and HazMat Operations and responded to 188 calls in the last four months of 2019. He averages 24 hours per week of duty time. He performed missionary work in South America and completed the EMT-B course and written exam but couldn’t take the practical exam due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Toni (Randy’s wife) was an EMT in Pennsylvania. She joined the OVFC in August 2019. She took EMT-B with Randy and completed all of the requirements except the practical testing.

Adriana joined with her father in January 2019 and took Firefighter 1 and HazMat Operations with him. She responded on 153 calls in the last four months of 2019. She recently completed the requirements to be certified as an EMT-B and is in the process of being cleared on the ambulance.

Faith joined in April 2019. She recently completed all the requirements to be certified as an EMT-B, but still needs to take HazMat Operations in order to ride.

Luke joined in October 2019. He completed HazMat Operations and was taking Firefighter 1 when the course was curtailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Maryland State Firemen's Association also announced on June 23, 2020 that Sean G. McKeever of the Odenton Volunteer Fire Company (OVFC) was this year's recipient of the John E. 'Sunny' Rose, Jr. Memorial Training Award for having completed the most hours of training dedicated to emergency services training in 2019.

Sean joined the OVFC in October 2017. He is a Captain in the United States Air Force and is assigned to a critical position as a Systems Engineer at Fort Meade. In less than three years, he has become a fully certified Firefighter II in Anne Arundel County and one of the most active responders. Sean is a regular member of both the Thursday night and Saturday night duty crews. He continuously strives to improve both himself and the fire company. He seeks opportunities to learn and lead. He received a Gift of Life Award from the Anne Arundel County Fire Department in September 2018 along with the other members of his crew for reviving a cardiac arrest victim. He was selected as the Rookie of the Year in 2019 by the Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association.

In calendar year 2019, Sean completed 352.5 hours of certified training.

Firefighter/EMT McKeever is an outstanding and dedicated member of the OVFC. He is a great role model and mentor for many of the other younger members. He demonstrates the attributes of a future leader, especially his passion for training and learning.

Patti Kidwill, a representative of the Odenton Volunteer Fire Company, wrote this story. She submitted it to Patch on behalf of the fire department.