Chief Corrine Piccardi remembers a sign outside Cabin John Park Volunteer Department on River Road back in 1999.

“I was working in Potomac,” she said.

The sign said: “Volunteer Here.”

Twenty years later, she’s fire chief.

Since going to the fire department’s open house, Piccardi has volunteered in the all-volunteer department since that 1999.

“I never left,” she said.

Emory Baird, three months old, was the youngest future swift water rescue volunteer to attend the Cabin John Volunteer Fire Department on Saturday, May 4, 2019.

So many people attended the open house, held at the River Road station on Saturday, May 4, 2019, that volunteers directed traffic and helped visitors park safely along River Road.

Fire and rescue workers gave multiple demonstrations of the department’s work, including how to cut apart cars when the department responds to a critical automobile rescue.

Joshua and Jackson Bauduin, their mother Carolyn Bauduin, watched as Piccardi gave play-by-play analysis of how the volunteers would respond to a critical automobile rescue.

The Baird family attended the open house because her older brother Hudson, 3 years old, “loves the fire trucks,” said father Justin Baird.

“We encourage you to come over and look at the vehicle and look at the tools. Anybody can answer any questions that you have,” said Piccardi.

Firefighter Patrick Khaghani took time with multiple families including the Bauduins, following the demonstration.

Khaghani has volunteered with the department for three-and-a-half years. Khaghani and many of his friends are kayakers and he wanted to get involved with swift water rescue. His interest in volunteering started with “the sense of wanting to give back to the community.”

“I get to take all these cool classes and the county is so awesome to train me,” he said.

Swift water rescue volunteers take very rigorous training and very time-consuming training at least a full day every month.

“They do it because they love it,” said Piccardi.

Get involved, volunteer. See www.cjpvfd.org