Advertising for Volunteers Successful in Hudson, OH

The lack of volunteers in EMS has hit everyone hard in the past few years--even affluent communities like Hudson, OH.

"People used to be able to volunteer on evenings and weekends, but as their schedules became busier, it became harder to attract them," says Hudson EMS Director, Bruce Graham.

The solution? An aggressive advertising campaign and promise of free education in exchange for a two-year commitment to the service after the education is completed. For the campaign, Hudson turned to graphic artist David Flynn, and Ray Bethea, a freelance marketing strategist and consultant, who had a long-time friendship with Hudson EMT Bob Carleton.

"I started working with Bob and Hudson EMS in 2006 and developed a communications plan for them," says Bethea.

The first handout brochures and newspaper campaign were so well-received, they decided to expand their reach in 2008 to include three groups: college students who were interested in EMS as a possible career; already trained EMTs and paramedics who wanted to get some experience and enhance their training and skills; and adults who were looking for a place to volunteer their time and give something back to their community.

"All the recruiting materials had one recurring tagline," says Bethea. "It simply said, 'Be somebody special. Be a Hudson EMS volunteer.'"

"When the campaign hit, between August 2008 and January 2009, we brought in 21 new people," says Graham. "It was beyond my wildest expectation. The one drawback is that once the two-year commitment period is up, it's sometimes difficult to retain the new recruits. We realize in this day and age people want to do EMS as a career, so if we can keep them two or three years, we're extremely lucky."

The campaign effort is still too new to see how it's going to work out, says Graham, but they intend to keep trying.

"I keep hearing that volunteerism is dead, and some of our members say we'll eventually have to go paid," he says, "but how can we say that when we recruited 21 people in five months? The volunteers are out there. We just have to figure out how to reach them."