Members of the Franklin Fire Company commemorated a number of department members who had graduated or were getting ready to graduate as members of the Class of 2026 on May 29.

The Junior Member Program, which was created to give young people chances to serve their community while keeping a strong focus on education and personal development, is how the grads first got involved with the department, according to officials. Now, a large number of the graduates are moving up to senior membership in the organization.

In addition to devoting numerous hours to training and community service, department heads saw that the students were able to successfully manage extracurricular activities, work, athletics, family obligations, and volunteer fire service commitments.