At one time or another, many kids have had aspirations of someday becoming a firefighter. While most kids grow up and forget their dreams of firefighting, Jill Koppenheffer did not.

Koppenheffer is a Kindergarten teacher at Old Richmond Elementary School, but her lifelong passion is firefighting. As a child Koppenheffer spent a lot of time with her grandfather and father, who were both fire chiefs. They introduced her to the life of a firefighter at a very young age.

Growing up in that environment inspired her to begin the long process of fire certification at the age of 15. A fire certificate is a difficult journey that in total takes a year and a half of classes twice a week, Saturday practice drills and many tests. For many people this schedule is difficult to achieve without time off.

“It’s tough,” Koppenheffer said. “There’s a lot to know and since most of us don’t use it everyday there’s a lot that’s easy to forget.”

After earning her Entry-Level Firefighter certification from Forsyth Tech at age 17, Koppenheffer took a break from the process to complete college at Appalachian State University.  She graduated in 2003 with a degree in Elementary Education and a minor in English-Creative Writing.

She returned back to her hometown of Tobaccoville, marri

ed a professional firefighter and took a job at Old Richmond Elementary School teaching second grade.

“Jill is a positive role model as a caring teacher and a Firefighter,” coworker Caroline Brown said. “She loves her family, friends and the community and it shows.”

Koppenheffer also finished her Firefighter level two certification and got her Wildland Fire certification, Agricultural Rescue certification and Fire and Life Safety Educator certification. She rejoined the Old Richmond Fire Department as a volunteer firefighter.

“It’s like a family,” Koppenheffer said. “At the firehouse there’s a lot of joking.. Most of the time you come back from a call and have fun and play jokes on each other because that’s a way to deal with the things you don’t really want to think about.”

Old Richmond Elementary School not only is where she works, but it is also where she attended elementary school just like her two children who are ages eleven and six. Koppenheffer chose the cozy and familiar school to teach at 16 years ago, and has taught second grade, fourth grade, and is now teaching kindergarten, her favorite.

“I always wanted to be a teacher and to teach little kids,”  Kopp

enheffer said. “I decided to come back to Old Richmond because I already knew a lot of the people here. Some of my old teachers still worked here when I first started.”

While the majority of Koppenheffer’s time is taken by school and family, she still works for the Old Richmond Fire Department as the administrative assistant. This means she’s in charge of things like payroll, work schedules, records and other paperwork, but she still goes on calls to fires if there’s a need.

“It’s exciting because every fire is different, and you never know what you’re going to get,” Koppenheffer said. “I’ve been doing it for so long that I’m kind of over that excitement.”

In addition to her annual field trip to the fire station, Koppenheffer also is the sponsor for the school’s fire safety team. The team consists of fourth and fifth graders and competes against other elementary schools in the county in a quiz bowl with different questions about fire and life safety. They were undefeated the last two years, and this year made it to the fourth round of state competition.

The fire safety team has made a big difference in the three short years since it began. Not only does it bring more awareness to kids at the school about fire safety, but those kids are sharing the information with their families.

“I feel like we’re really helping people by educating them on

what to do in those scary situations,” Koppenheffer said. “When the county fire department asked me to start the team here I thought it sounded fun, and I wanted to see what would happen. It’s been amazing.”

Koppenheffer has really made a difference in many people’s lives whether it was through teaching or firefighting, and that is why she is a hometown hero.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Koppenheffer and Old Richmond Elementary School's Fire Safety Team wins their competition.