03/12/2026
U-Crest is proud to celebrate our fantastic female firefighting force this Women’s History Month. We have a long tradition of welcoming our sisters into a field that is still largely dominated by men, proudly boasting one of the highest female active memberships making up 18% of our firehouse family.
Haley Graczyk, 7.5 years of service. Haley is currently our longest standing female member. She is an exterior apparatus driver, Fire Police, held the office of Recording Secretary for 2 years, Purchasing Agent for 1 year, and has served on our fund drive committee for the past 3 years. Haley also has given us countless hours with our community events. Haley is joined by several family members at our hall.
Elaine Tatta, 7 years of service. Elaine is an exterior firefighter and apparatus driver that has also served as company Vice President for 4 years and is on her 3rd year as Company President. She has also run several events over the years. This includes, but is not limited to, U-Crest’s Tunnels to Towers participation, our company children’s party and community Halloween event.
Kelly Foegen, 6 years of service. Kelly is an exterior firefighter who is also Fire Police. She has also co-chaired our fund drive committee for 3 years and is currently serving as our company Financial Secretary.
Christine Prusiecki, 5 years of service. Christine is an exterior firefighter and a member of Fire Police. She has also co-chaired some of our bonding events and is currently serving as one of our company Directors. She, like Haley, has family deep rooted in our history with family serving along side her.
Miranda Light, 4 years of service. Miranda is an interior firefighter who has completed her EMT certification and is currently training to become a flight medic.
Jennifer Piske, 4 years of service. Jen is an interior firefighter and apparatus driver. She has chaired our Fire Prevention committee for three years, was Recording Secretary for two and is serving as our company’s first female Firematic Officer. She has also chaired various events such as the annual fire truck parade and family picnic.
Maddison Jordan, 3 years of service. Maddison is an EMT and exterior firefighter. She has completed EVOC to become a driver and has been appointed chairperson of our Recruitment and Retention committee. Maddison is heavily involved in all of our community events, having run several herself.
Grace Cottone, 1 year of service. Grace is an exterior firefighter currently working her way through probation. She has also completed several online courses.
Hementa Adhikari, 1 year of service. Hementa is an exterior firefighter who completed her EMT training during her probationary period, earning her EMS certification.
Suzannah Ortwein, 1 year of service. Suzannah is an exterior firefighter. She has run accountability on several calls and is also very involved with community events.
Tayma Hamady, .5 years of service. Tayma is our newest female, exterior member. She is currently enrolled in EMT classes.
In addition to being an invaluable asset on day to day calls, we experienced a serendipitous chain of events very recently. U-Crest rolled their first all female truck to an EMS call with a female driver, officer and crew on International Women’s Day 3/8/2026.
