Amber Boatright spends most days teaching third grade at Marietta Public Schools, but when disaster strikes, she straps on her bunker gear and heads out to help fight fires.
Her two professions, firefighting and teaching, are more than just a career. To Boatright, this is a lifestyle.
"It's hard to explain to somebody what makes you want to do this because it's never been about what I want to do, it's just who I am," Boatright said. "These are the two things that I'm passionate about and that's what I've put all of my effort and handwork into."
While growing up, Boatright watched as her brother and father joined the Shady Dale Volunteer Fire Department — one of several volunteer departments that help protect the citizens of Love County.
"After a year or two of knowing all of the people and really getting to feel like we were a part of something, I decided that I wanted to help," Boatright said. As soon as she turned 18, Boatright started as a rehab personnel.
During that time, Boatright would take water, snacks and even dinner to firefighters that were out on the scene. "The more I did it, the more I realized that I wanted to be out there doing that instead of just feeding everybody," Boatright said.
Boatright focused on college for a while and upon graduating she became a full-fledged firefighter. When she started, around 2009, Boatright was practically the only female firefighter in the county.
However, that is not the case anymore. "Nowadays it's very common to see other women on the fire department, which is a good thing," Boatright said. "It's a male-dominated profession but it's good to see other women out there."
Teaching was a lifelong dream for Boatright, and it wasn't too long after she became a firefighter that she also joined the team at Marietta Public Schools. "I loved going to school, I loved my teachers and I loved learning things, and I just knew from a very early age that's what I wanted to do," she said.
Naturally, Boatright decorated her classroom with a firefighter theme, and every once in a while, she'll snap a photo while on the scene of a fire to show to her students.
"They think it's really cool that I do that," Boatright said. "Then they have all these questions about what happens and what you need to do to become a firefighter — it usually starts a pretty good discussion in my room."
Her two professions sometimes intermix and Boatright has been instrumental in leading fire prevention sessions for older students at the school. Typically, the first week of October is dedicated to fire prevention training.
Firefighters will visit pre-k and primary age kids to help teach them about fire safety, but Boatright wanted to expand the programs to third through fifth graders as well.
"My kids usually have younger siblings in the primary, so I wanted to show them how important it is to have a plan with your family and teach those younger siblings so that everyone knows what the plan is and is safe if something like that was to ever happen," Boatright said.
The schedule of a volunteer firefighter is never the same each day. For Boatright this often means many sleepless nights. Some days she will get called to fires right after the school bell rings to end the day, and others she'll wake from her bed to go fight grass fires at 3 a.m.
"Sometimes one can happen in the middle of the night and you're fighting a house fire and coming home and getting two or three hours of sleep, and getting up and going to work the next day," Boatright said. "That's what any volunteer has to do."
Most volunteer firefighters work day-to-day jobs like Boatright, requiring a lot of dedication. Boatright said it can be exhausting at times, but it is worth it to help the community. "You have to be dedicated — both of the things that I do, it's not a career so much as it's a lifestyle," Boatright said. "You have to give a lot."
Boatright doesn't plan to stop working either profession any time soon and, ultimately, she said she hopes it inspires her students. "I feel like this is a good way for me to show kids that there's more than one way to get involved with the community," she said.
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