Teagan Kubeil burns brightest when talking about the CFA.
Born and raised at Euroa, the 18-year-old has been a part of her local volunteer group for close to half of her life, soaking up a wealth of knowledge — and she doesn’t mind sharing the tricks of the trade.
At the weekend, Kubeil helped steer Euroa’s junior brigade to a stellar showing at the Urban Junior State Firefighting Championships at Mooroopna, taking out the aggregate prize in under-14s while the team took out third overall.
Overseeing her 14 young proteges, the eldest of whom she trumps in age by only a year, had the squad’s running coach grinning from ear to ear following a successful weekend.
“It was amazing; I guess being a junior myself it was very rewarding to be able to teach the up-and-coming members my skills and see them achieve what they achieved on the weekend,” Kubeil said.
“I remember competing in Sydney when I was a junior, and you just feel like you belong somewhere, everyone was really welcoming and I definitely made lifelong friends out of it.”
Joining Euroa CFA seven years ago, Kubeil was drawn to the service by the community aspect.
Funnily enough, it’s precisely the reason she has stuck along for the ride ever since.
“I’ve got a lot of family in the CFA, and just growing up and watching them, I always knew it was something that I wanted to do,” she said.
“I love my community involvement, so being able to help and give back to the community really pushed me to want and do it.
“I’m hoping to coach again next year, and we also do a winter program with our juniors where instead of the competition side, it’s more learning about how to draft water and more firefighting aspects of the CFA.”
Serving at the beating heart of her community throughout her teenage years, Kubeil knows the magnitude of what the weekend’s achievement means for her young team.
A sense of pride washed over the 18-year-old at the work of the budding firefighters — even if they push her buttons on the odd occasion.
“It’s definitely a challenge obviously with the age, some people don’t like to listen,” she said with a laugh.
“No, it’s very rewarding and I feel like they appreciate it a little bit more because we’re so close in age.”