In Barbara Wolff's Eldorado home, her fire gear still lay on the floor next to an unpacked bag. It was a Tuesday, and she had just arrived home from California at 11 p.m. the night before.

Deployed as a nurse for the New Mexico One Disaster Medical Assistance Team, she spent a week helping the victims of the devastating wildfires.

This is just the kind of act that earned Wolff a spot as one of the 10 Who Made a Difference. Lt. Stephen F. Tapke of the Eldorado Fire and Rescue Service nominated his colleague because she is a grandmother who "continues to dedicate her professional and volunteer careers to the service of her fellow man."

Wolff started her career as an emergency service provider and firefighter in 2000, shortly after she moved to New Mexico. She was working part time in the same-day surgery department of St. Vincent Regional Medical Center and went looking for extra work.

"I was one of these volunteers that just
sort of wandered in off the street," Wolff
said. She is a professional nurse and
wanted to volunteer to do something in a similar line of work. She was looking into becoming an emergency medical technician
for the Eldorado Fire and Rescue.

"I walked in to check it out and said, 'I'd like to volunteer,' and they said, 'We really like our EMTs to be firefighters too.' So that's how I got into the field," she said.

Wolff took to the firefighting training right away. She especially enjoyed learning how to drive the ladder truck and work the pumps.

"It was a lot of fun learning the firefighting side," Wolff said. Entering her 60s didn't stop her from giving her best efforts. She trained and got her body in better shape and continues to keep it up with a daily three-mile power walk and some weight lifting.

California wasn't her first experience going out-of-state to fight fires. Every year she qualifies to be a wildland firefighter and has been assigned to other fires throughout the United States. She's been deployed to fight wildfires in Montana and to help with relief after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"It's fun," Wolff said of her unpredictable schedule. "It's great, adventuresome; I have great adventures and I meet people from all over the world. ... It's my opportunity to give back to my community."

While she enjoys her adventures away from home, she especially loves responding to calls in Eldorado.

"It's a team effort with the members of the department," Wolff said. She said she averages about three calls a day.

Wolff is no stranger to recognition. In July she received the EMT Paramedic of the Year Award at the 27th annual New Mexico Statewide EMS Conference in Albuquerque.

Although Wolff is very involved in her volunteer efforts, she still practices nursing at the same-day surgery department and the emergency room at St. Vincent.

Wolff got into nursing to keep a family tradition alive. Her mother was a nurse and her father was an eye doctor.

"I always wanted to be a nurse. I did little side trips thinking that maybe because I was athletic, maybe I should be a physical-education teacher, I'm very musical, maybe I should be a music teacher, but I always kept coming back to nursing," Wolff said. "I love helping people."

When she was 16 she started volunteering as a nurse's aide at North Westchester Hospital in New York, a place she always came back to when she was studying nursing at Syracuse University.

She got her nursing degree in 1963 and has done "all sorts of nursing since," including bedside nursing and teaching nursing courses.

"It's a great feeling of satisfaction to know that the skills that I have are being used to help someone feel better or to make them more conformable or to cheer them up," Wolff said.

When she's not saving lives she's in her
studio perfecting her watercolor and calligraphy.

She sees retirement in her future but she said she has a good four years left to give. She's happy doing her volunteer work and doesn't have to think twice about doing it which makes honors like this all the sweeter.

"I am incredibly honored and very humbled by it," Wolff said about her selection.




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