Michele Kohut joined company five years ago
By: Sue Kramer
Last of a series on men and women emergency services volunteers.?
LAMBERTVILLE – Michele Kohut loves spur-of-the-moment trips to new places, isn’t afraid to try gymnastics on a trampoline, loves hiking, fishing, camping and the adrenaline rush she gets from bungee jumps.
The 30-something bartender also has been a volunteer firefighter for five years.
Ms. Kohut decided to join the Lambertville Fire Department and the Fleet Wing Hook & Ladder Company No. 3 after she saw "the adrenaline rush" a friend got when he answered a fire call. But one minor concern stood in the way of joining the ladder company that would require her to climb the truck’s 75-foot ladder: She is afraid of heights.
Never one to be held back by something as "simple" as a fear of heights, Ms. Kohut decided there was only one way to conquer the fear: take on the biggest height challenge she could think of – bungee jumping. Once she met that challenge, she set focused on becoming a firefighter.
"I wanted to see what it was like," she said of her decision, "because I know what adrenaline is because I bungee-jumped."
She added, "In order for me to fight fires, I had to go to school. And I was determined to go to school."
Ms. Kohut was unique in her class and not because she is a woman. Unlike most people who begin firefighter training when they’re in their late teens or early 20s, she was already in her 30s when she took her first class.
"I was the oldest one in my class," she said with a laugh. "And there was only one other female in my class of 43. It felt funny, but I fit right in."
But even after joining the Fleet Wing and completing school, Ms. Kohut still had qualms about actually going into a burning building. So she decided to hold off making her final commitment until after she actually fought a fire.
"I stayed," she said. "That’s my second family at the firehouse. I like the way everybody works together. It’s like one big family. It just makes you have a good feeling."
She’s also in training to drive the Fleet Wing’s ladder truck. She recently completed a firefighter driver training course and began maneuvering the 34-foot long, 14-foot wide and 10½-foot-high truck around town.
"It’s not as bad as it looks," she said of driving the truck.
The only thing left for her to learn in that course is backing it into the firehouse.
"I haven’t tried it yet," she said. "It’s got to be when nobody’s around in case I mess up, but I know some of the other ones have hit the wall" of the firehouse backing in.
She’s also taken several other fire-related training courses and is planning to begin hazard materials training. She’s been on fire company banquet committees and also can be seen working at the Fleet Wing carnival and the company’s Shad Festival food stand. She was also part of the team that created the Fleet Wing’s Christmas snow scene two years ago.
"We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get that snow to blow in the window," she said. "It was a lot of time, but it worked. That was awesome, wasn’t it?"
In her free time, Ms. Kohut likes camping in Pennsylvania’s state parks. She also loves "salmon fishing on Lake Ontario and trout fishing in Canada." Ms. Kohut and her boyfriend, fellow firefighter Lester Myers Jr., are planning a fishing trip to Lake Ontario later this month.
Ms. Kohut’s other travel adventures are unplanned.
"I’ve always been that way," she said. "I always picked up and went."
She has swum with dolphins off Key West, Fla., gone on whale watching cruises and traveled in every state except Alaska and Hawaii.
Last fall, she was talking with a friend about how much fun it would be to go to Palm Springs, Calif., and less than a week later, they’d rearranged their work schedules, bought their airplane tickets and found themselves flying to the West Coast for a week’s vacation.
"It was beautiful," she said. "I liked all the neat little shops, all the good restaurants and the pretty scenery that was all around."
She even went to the Bahamas for lunch one day.
"It was my birthday, and a bunch of my friends asked me what I wanted to do, and I said I want to go to the Bahamas for lunch," she recalled. "We drove to the airport, got on a plane, went down there and had lunch. We did the Straw Market and shopped in the stores, and we gambled a little bit, laid on the beach for a couple of hours and came home. It was awesome."
Ms. Kohut, who grew up in Levittown, Pa., and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, was an athlete from the time she was a little girl. She excelled in swimming and gymnastics and used to put on gymnastics shows in her back yard.
"I charged a quarter," she said with a laugh. "We had an old swing set, and I took off the teeter-totter and the swings, and I used that for my uneven bars. If I wasn’t in the pool, I was flippin’ around the yard.
Ms. Kohut continued with athletics in high school. "I was on the gymnastics team," she said. "I was on the swimming team and the diving team, too." She also loved water ballet.
The fifth of seven children – she has a twin brother who is just minutes younger – Ms. Kohut moved to Lambertville 20 years ago when her family moved to Carversville.
"I ended up in Lambertville, and I’ve been here ever since," she said.
The move to Lambertville changed Ms. Kohut’s life dramatically. She had set her sights on becoming a counselor and was planning to attend college when a friend asked her to "step behind the bar and pour a couple of beers" at Mitchell’s Café one night.
"I didn’t know how to make any mixed drinks," she said, "and I didn’t even know how to pour beer. I would have to ask the customers how to mix the drink. It was funny."
But she quickly got the hang of bartending, and 20 years later, Ms. Kohut still is working at Mitchell’s Café on Church Street.
Ms. Kohut agreed to share her favorite drink recipe with Beacon readers.
"A Cosmopolitan," she said. "That’s the most popular drink around right now."
She uses "two shots of Absolute Citron Vodka, ½ shot of Cointreau, a little bit of fresh squeezed lime and a splash of cranberry juice" in a shaker of ice. Shake or stir and strain it into a chilled Martini glass garnished with a piece of lime.
Since moving to Lambertville, Ms. Kohut has proven herself willing to go to any lengths to help a friend or make someone happy. She spends countless hours visiting and helping friends who are hospitalized, ill at home or just need a friend.
This willingness to lend a hand reaped a special reward for her 11 years ago. When a friend’s beagle was expecting puppies, and a veterinarian said the dog shouldn’t be outside when she gave birth, Ms. Kohut brought the dog into her apartment.
"The vet said she could have died so I took her in," she said. "And she had her puppies in my apartment."
Ms. Kohut instantly fell in love with one of the pups, which she kept and named Elsie.
"She goes everywhere with me," she said, "firehouse and all. She has her own bed at the firehouse; she’s our mascot. She’s my sweetheart. I love her so much."
Elsie shares Ms. Kohut’s sense of adventure. She’s been to Lake Ontario, Canada, "camping with me all over. If I can bring her, I bring her," Ms. Kohut said. "I used to take her to the Poconos all the time. She’ll go fishing with us. She’ll be on the boat with us."