Members of the Altona Fire Department have a new shoulder to lean on thanks to the recent addition of a department chaplain.

Richard Bage, a local youth pastor, has been welcomed into the fold after answering the call.

"Basically I talked to the membership...and we decided that we'd like to move ahead with a chaplain. So the members went back to their churches and put the word out, and we had Richard step forward," said Fire Chief, Greg Zimmerman.

He explained Bage will help look after the members' spiritual and emotional needs, particularly with critical incident stress.

"We're looking forward to seeing what else we can do with the chaplain, this is all new to us," added Zimmerman. "He's been here for a few meetings and about the only thing we've had him do so far is say grace at our suppers."

As for Bage, he said this post seemed like the right fit for him.

"With a community like Altona there are so many different ways that you can get involved, so many ways to serve the community, but just thinking of myself where I think some of my gifts are...they didn't always seem like the right fit. Something like this just seemed to make a lot more sense."

Bage added when he was kid there were three things that he wanted to do when he was older. One was to become a preacher, the second was be a fire fighter, and third to be a professional wrestler. "I guess two out of three ain't bad," he joked.

When asked why he answered the call for someone to fill this role, Bage said he was motivated by a desire to give back. Bage and his wife moved to Altona about ten years ago for work and didn't have any family or friends in the community at the time, in fact he said they knew nothing about the town when they first arrived.

"Over the last decade this community has been just so good to both my wife and I, and so just the desire to give back and serve the community," noted Bage.

Bage added he is most looking forward to forging new relationships with each member of the fire department and finding ways to further encourage and support them in the work that they do.