![\"Courage](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/15A7724930D398BD43CE7C08AABB7064.jpg\")
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CHICAGO<\/strong> – It\u2019s the first day of Courage Camp with the Chicago Fire Department, and it\u2019s already shaping up to be one of the city\u2019s signature summer camp experiences.<\/p>\n Three hundred children, ages 13 to 18, are taking part in the three-day camps, held at firehouses across Chicago.<\/p>\n What we know:<\/p>\n Campers learn what it takes to become a firefighter or EMT. Firefighters and paramedics demonstrate their equipment, showcase their vehicles and teach the importance of safety and health.<\/p>\n It\u2019s not all summer calisthenics \u2014 participants get to hold a fire hose and take part in a simulation where they rescue someone from a burning house.<\/p>\n Chicago Fire Department Chief Debra Sommer launched the program to bring the experience into neighborhoods.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s a recruitment tool for our high school program but also for careers in the fire service, with EMS as paramedics and EMTs, and then as firefighters and first responders. So our goal is to give them as much immersive experience as we can over the next three days. So they will be working with firefighters and paramedics, doing physical fitness, evolutions, testing out gear, using tools, learning Stop the Bleed, hands-on CPR and it\u2019s all on front lines. So, they\u2019re getting to see this live as it actually happens,” Sommer said.<\/p>\n Eighteen-year-old Joaquin Ruiz Rivera joined the camp to build professional skills before starting college at the University of Illinois Chicago. He hopes to pursue a career in public service.<\/p>\n “Your whole life is on the line. Tragedies happen, people pass away from terrible deaths. It makes me think \u2018man, it had better not happen to me.\u2019 I am the only child. And might be the first in my family to be a firefighter. I have to keep the promise to take care of myself,” Rivera said.<\/p>\n Many campers say they want to return next year \u2014 and some may one day become first responders themselves.<\/p>\n Chicago<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO – It\u2019s the first day of Courage Camp with the Chicago Fire Department, and it\u2019s already shaping…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":46569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5404,5386,1818,50,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-46568","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-cook-county","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-illinois","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46568","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}