At 45, a Suffolk woman passes the test and graduates from the Newport News academy
Richmond Times Dispatch
Copyright 2007 Richmond Newspapers, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — As a young mother, Stacy Zemp left a desk job with the Navy to raise her children.
Last week, the 45-year-old mother of three passed the final physical test and joined the Newport News Fire Department. It was her second attempt.
Zemp is the first woman of her age to pass the physical to win a job with the force.
Joining the department was the Suffolk woman’s dream.
Zemp received a job offer from Newport News, on the condition she pass a timed physical trial. In June, she missed her mark by 2 minutes and was forced to resign her position with the department.
Zemp received job offers from other fire departments with less stringent physical-testing requirements. Recruiters were impressed by her accomplishments and her dedication. But she turned back the offers.
“That would’ve been selling myself short. I probably would’ve always regretted it,” she told the Daily Press. “At my age, how many other chances am I going to get?”
Firefighting, she said, has always appealed to her. With her kids grown, she felt free to pursue a second career, one in which most new recruits are her kids’ age.
Over the summer, her personal regimen was perhaps even more rigorous than what she endured at the Tidewater Regional Fire Academy. She lifted weights and drilled herself on a replica of the fire-obstacle course that she had built in her backyard.
“Working out in the heat and humidity added another level of training,” Zemp said.
When she re-enrolled in the fire academy in September, Zemp knew what was in store.
Three weeks into the 16-week course, she took the test that had stumped her before and passed it with a minute and a half to spare.
“When it came down to that moment, it was all worthwhile,” she said. “It was worth doing it right.”
Newport News Assistant Fire Chief Pat Dent is head of the department’s training division.
“She was determined,” Dent said of Zemp. “You don’t always get that kind of loyalty from someone who you tell, ‘You haven’t been successful, you can’t continue on.’ ”
At last week’s graduation, Zemp addressed the 18 other academy graduates, 13 of whom will join her in the Newport News Fire Department.
And for the second time, her classmates voted her class president.