By JULIE CARLE
BG Independent News
Taylor Kervin is an adrenaline junkie, always looking for adventure and doing things outside her comfort zone.
At the 2025 Galentine’s Gala, hosted by the Bowling Green Women in Leadership, one of the experiential opportunities at the fundraising auction caught Kervin’s adventurous eye.
It read: “Day in the Life of a Firefighter Experience. This unique offering allows the winning bidder to spend an unforgettable day shadowing our dedicated first responders for the City of Bowling Green.”
When she read that the successful bidder would get to suit up in firefighting gear, ride in a fire engine and try their hands with fire equipment used in life-saving situations, she knew the day would be exactly what her thrill-seeking side wanted. When the gavel came down at the February event, Kervin’s bid was the final one.
According to BG Women in Leadership Founder Andrea Depinet, the idea for the firefighter experience came up during a Galentine’s planning session.
“We talked amongst the group looking for experiential items to add to the live auction,” she said. “Somebody suggested something similar to this, an experience that might appeal to someone with a dream of walking in a firefighter’s boots.”
She reached out to Chief Bill Moorman to see if the department would be willing to do it. “He was like, ‘Absolutely.’”
“Being part of the community and partnerships that we form with local organizations is a great experience for everybody,” Moorman said. “We’ve never had an opportunity like this in the past, so if we can help raise some money for a cause, I see it as a win-win for everybody,”
Schedules aligned earlier this month for Kervin and her brother, Tyler Frendt, to step into the firefighting gear and live the life of a firefighter for a day.
Frendt admitted he was “along just for the ride. She called me and said, ‘Do you want to rappel down a water tower? If so, be here this day.’”
The day started at the Court Street fire station, where Bowling Green Fire Capt. Nathan Espinoza had the day’s experiences lined up. Kervin and Fredt first suited up and hopped into the ladder truck that took them 100 feet into the air.
Kervin had been in a bucket truck before, but the ladder truck was even better. “I didn’t get to drive the truck, but I got to push the buttons to drive the ladder,” she said. “It was cool to see everything from so far up.”
The next experience was a ride in the fire engine to the Bowling Green water tower at Carter Park. There, the sister-brother duo was able to try two training opportunities that firefighters regularly go through to gain skills and confidence in a controlled environment.
First up was the confidence course in the top story of the water tower. It is an obstacle course that simulates conditions firefighters might find when searching inside a burning building.
According to Deputy Chief Tony Zmarzly, he and other members of the department built the course earlier this year. “We had a smaller version of this that had been built with spare parts,” he said. “This one was built using some grant money that was left over. We bought the materials and got it done this spring. We are excited to feature it here.”
The course can be reconfigured easily to change the scenarios. “We’ll change it up so that it’s all new to all 56 members of the department, so each time it’s just like they would be going into a house,” Zmarzly said.
Kervin and Frendt took turns going through the training course. Wearing full gear—between 150 and 200 pounds of equipment, from fire-resistant coats and pants, gloves and boots to a helmet, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), face mask and goggles—they maneuvered through the maze of rooms and spaces that they might find in a house or building.
Moorman offered “the inside scoop of what happens for fire rescue,” and how the department-built obstacle course tests the skills often required on the job.
“There are dangers all around you, but the danger isn’t necessarily the fire,” he said. The course teaches how to do a search in a smoke-filled room. “They’ll be down on their hands and knees, where the cool air is going to be, to do either a right-hand search pattern or a left-hand search pattern,” he said.
Using one hand throughout the search helps ensure they don’t get lost, or turned around, going back in the direction they’ve already been, Moorman explained. “They search for door knobs and windows and if they find a bed, they’ll search under the bed and on top, making sure no one’s there.”
As they move through the space, they face other obstacles such as a collapsed staircase they have to navigate, an attic floor that collapses, a tangle of wires to navigate and a window that is too high to easily get through.
Kervin and Frendt made it through the course—Frendt with a smoke shield on his mask to simulate a smoke-filled room. Kervin opted to go without simulating the smoke, focused more on using her energy to carry the extra weight of the gear and completing the required tasks.
As she tumbled out of the high window at the end of the course, she was sweating, but wore a big smile at the accomplishment.
The highlight for both of them was being able to rappel from the third story of the Bowling Green water tower. It wasn’t mentioned in the event program, but it definitely was a blast, Kervin said.
“I’m not afraid of heights, so I knew this was going to be fun,” she added. When they opened the hatches, it was a long way down to the ground level. “It was a thrill, not like a rollercoaster kind of thrill, but a real experience.”
After the free-floating experience of rappelling down the three stories, they also had to be pulled back up, a feat that required strength and flexibility. Frendt stopped at the second floor level and shouted to his sister, who was watching him from the third floor, “This is awesome. I feel like Spiderman.”
The rest of the day involved training modules simulating auto extrication using the “Jaws of Life” and a live fire extinguisher demonstration with a propane-fueled fire.
“It was an amazing experience,” Kervin said. “I missed the first year of the Galentine’s event, but I got to go this year. I was so excited about the firefighting experience, I knew I wanted to win that.”
She spent more money than she had planned, but when her husband asked, she just told him, “Yeah, don’t ask.”
She knew it would be an adventure she couldn’t pass up, and besides, it was for a good cause—business scholarships for women, empowering the next generation of business leaders.
Moorman has already committed to offering the experiential opportunity for the 2026 Galentine’s Gala. Depinet said the event is already scheduled for Feb. 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Stone Ridge Golf Club, featuring a “walk the runway” red theme.
Offering the firefighter experience “was the best thing you could have done,” Kervin said to Depinet. “I was so pumped, doing all the fire stuff.”
I already texted one of my friends whose kid is obsessed with firefighters. If they do it again, I’ll bid on it again and hope to be the high bidder so I can take my son’s friend who will be all in for the experience.”
The hardest part was “all the gear,” she said, but the biggest takeaway from the experience? “That was a lot of hard work, but it reminds me to thank a fireman,” Kervin said.
