SPFD’s Westphal says family, faith, and service keep him grounded, focused
By Brandi Makuski
Stevens Point Fire Lt. Shane Westphal has been honored as the 2023 First Responder of the Year in the 71st Assembly District.
Westphal, who will be 41 in November, received the award from Rep. Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) in the State Capitol on Oct. 17, with Chief Jb Moody, Assistant Fire Chief Dennis Zvara, and Assistant EMS Chief Joe Gemza by his side.
Westphal was honored alongside First Responders from each State Assembly district at a Hometown Hero ceremony during the Assembly’s October legislative session.
“Lt. Westphal’s contributions on and off duty, leadership, and tireless advocacy for the Stevens Point Fire Department and Portage County EMS system led to his selection for this outstanding achievement,” Rep. Katrina Shankland said in a statement.
Westphal hails from Walworth, Wis. — and is regularly teased by his coworkers for mentioning it so often — and is a fifth-generation First Responder, whose great-great-grandfather was a member of a volunteer department in the 1920s. He’s been with SPFD since 2011, but his career initially began on a very different path.
He received his undergraduate degree in agricultural marketing and communication from UW-River Falls and worked for a time as a seed and fertilizer salesman. But an interest in scuba diving required him to take a class in water rescue and become a volunteer EMT with Fontana EMS — a municipal effort to address an EMT shortage there — which later led Westphal to a full-time fire/EMS position in the Twin Cities area.
“It’s the job that brought me here,” Westphal said. “Stevens Point had an opening, and I applied, and I got it, and it worked out well because it was closer to family.”
He’s known as one of the most outgoing and cheerful members of the department and is a key figure behind the department’s Explorers program. When asked what keeps him motivated and grounded, he said the answer was simple: his family, his faith, and his upbringing, which is rooted in service.
“My faith and my family definitely keep me grounded. When I really sit down and think about it, those are the two things that have really keep me grounded. And through my faith, that’s what gives me the encouragement to serve. This job can be difficult,” he said. “Something my parents taught me was to serve others. And this job is easy, in that serving is a big part of the job, whether it’s serving the people in the community, or serving the people that I work with.”
While all branches of emergency services see “ups and downs every day,” he sees the job as one that can make a positive, and immediate, impact on the lives of others.
“It’s amazing. It’s really an opportunity that presents itself often in this profession,” he said, adding that the fire/EMS service draws coworkers close to one another. “When you spend a third of your life together, you do become close, you become family. And that, too, has its ups and downs but you get through it and that’s how you grow stronger as a team. The team atmosphere is one of the biggest things that draws me to the fire service.”
Westphal lives in Hull with his wife and children.
