Clyde Williams jokes that his tenure as a volunteer with the Laurel Volunteer Rescue Squad started when he was a patient.
Now serving as assistant chief of the department, Williams was visiting the station more than 19 years ago to thank the squad's men and women who helped him when he needed an ambulance ride to the hospital.
While there, emergency crews were called to an incident and Williams was offered an opportunity to ride-along with the first responders.
After that ride-along, Williams said he was "hooked" and immediately signed up to begin training to become a volunteer.
"To watch the compassion, to watch how much work was involved and to watch these guys do their job, it was amazing," he said of his first ride-along experience.
Volunteer rescue squads and fire departments across the state are hoping more community members will become interested in volunteering at their local station as Williams did, as volunteer numbers remain low across the state.
On Sunday, stations in Maryland held recruitment open houses in an effort to bolster the number of emergency responders in its ranks and increase public awareness about the need for volunteers.
Throughout the day, volunteers led tours of the rescue squad's station and vehicle apparatus, allowed visitors to try on gear and provided demonstrations on some volunteer responsibilities, such as cutting the roof off a car for vehicle extrication
Laurel Volunteer Rescue Squad currently has between 35 to 45 active firefighters and EMTs, which is the lowest the department has seen since 9/11, when membership jumped, Williams said
The station responds to about 400 to 450 calls per month throughout Laurel and into Anne Arundel, Howard and Montgomery counties
At the Laurel Volunteer Rescue Squad, volunteers are tasked with manning the station and answering calls from 3 to 7 a.m. Paid staff from the Prince George's County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department work the station from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
There are a variety of reasons why volunteer membership is low, although the two main reasons Williams hears when talking to people about the opportunity are they just don't have the time and or the money to stop working a second job and volunteer at the firehouse.
Volunteer staff are required to go through the same training as paid emergency responders — about 150 hours of class time — although the training is at no cost to the volunteers. Before starting training, new recruits are required to ride along on four calls, just to ensure this is something they would be interested in pursuing.
"As much chaos as there is, it's a very well-oiled machine," Williams said. "You see firetrucks pull up and there's hoses, people running, things going on, and you look at it like 'These guys don't know what they're doing.' But the end result is a life has been saved or a fire has been put out."
The Laurel squad hosted more than a handful of guests throughout the day Sunday, including Laurel resident MyNikka Posey.
Posey, 26, spent a few hours at the station for the event and already signed up for her first ride-along.
Posey said she had been thinking about joining for awhile after moving to the area from Suitland and decided to check out the station after seeing an advertisement out front earlier in the week.
"I just love the aspect of helping out," she said of the department.
Chris "Turtle" Winkler, a volunteer at the Rescue Squad for three years, believes some of the reasoning behind dwindling volunteer numbers is that people don't know how to get involved, admitting that he didn't know three years ago.
Through a family friend, Winkler started out at the station just looking for community service opportunities, but once he was finished, he enrolled in training.
"The adrenaline rush is great," he said of being a volunteer. "When the bells go off, it's your time to show your 100 percent effort."