On any given day, more than 600 people conceivably could call Terri Hopper with a plea for help.
And Hopper, an administrative assistant in the Illinois Fire Service Institute, would cheerily take every call.
“Even if I don’t know the answer, I at least know who to call to get them some help,” she said. “I have gained a lot of knowledge in my 12 years here, but sometimes you have to admit you just don’t know. That’s when I start calling and asking for help.”
Giving and getting help aren’t exactly unusual circumstances at the Fire Service Institute.
Hopper said working alongside such committed and assistance-minded employees has made her tenure there an enjoyable one.
“They are all such giving people; it’s what they do,” she said. “It’s easy to work with them. I’ve never had a desire to go anywhere else.”
Hopper’s mother died in May and family members were astounded at the number of Fire Service Institute employees who stopped by to offer condolence. Even Hopper had a hard time believing that so many had come out to support her during her hour of need.
“They just kept stopping by,” she said. “One of my family members told me, ‘Now I think you’re just making people up.’ They are a great group to work with – they support you in good times and bad.”
And Hopper said she works hard to return that goodwill through her job by supporting institute employees wherever she can.
Hopper’s duties are wide-ranging, including everything from billing and travel vouchers to policies and payroll – and just about any other need in between. She is part of a 40-person office unit that keeps the institute humming.
She works with students and staff members, many of whom work in the field and need a higher degree of assistance with human resource issues.
“We have an automated system for payroll and travel expenses,” she said, “but there are a lot of questions about how to navigate it and even how to sign in.”
She said the biggest obstacle to mastering her job was learning the language. While English is the choice of speakers within the institute, the vernacular used by firefighters is rife with terminology and acronyms rarely heard by most civilians.
“Understanding the lingo is one of the biggest learning curves,” she said. “They talk that way all the time, but to me it was all new. I’ve just picked it up along the way.”
Prior to signing on at the UI in 2000, where she started as a clerk/typist, Hopper worked in child-support enforcement for 15 years, both at the state and county level.
She said the job was frustrating and thankless at times – but knowing she might help a child during the process made it worthwhile.
“You get to see successes, but there weren’t that many on the enforcement side,” she said. “It’s why I needed a change in careers. Some had just had hard luck, some didn’t really care and some tried really hard to be a mother or father again,” she said.
Hopper was raised on a farm in Hindsboro, a rural village east of Arcola in Douglas County, Ill.
“Growing up, I spent most of my summers weeding beans,” she said.
She still lives outside a small town – Collison in neighboring Vermilion County – “because that’s where I feel most comfortable, where nature surrounds me.”
She said she thinks that upbringing, and the old-fashioned values it held so high, has helped her in her career.
“The thing about the farming community is everyone relies on each other,” she said. “They have this value of family and friends and the things that are really important. I’ve learned you can’t get through life by yourself.”
Hopper and her husband, Tim, who works at the UI as a water station sub-foreman at Abbott Power Plant, have two grown children and two grandchildren.
For fun, the couple rides motorcycles. Most rides are local, with Terri on the backseat, though the couple has taken out-of-state trips as well.
She said it beats taking a car any day.
“I know how to drive but I’m usually just a passenger,” she said. “It’s nice because (on a motorcycle) you can just stop a lot and take your time. You can’t smell all the smells in a car.”
