News

Perpetual Fundraising Discourages Pa. Volunteers

Jim Hook

12/18/2013

Dec. 18--HARRISBURG -- Volunteer fire companies place increasing demands on volunteers to participate in fundraisers and to train more for saving lives and property.

"We're holding our own, but the day is fast approaching when there will be no volunteer fire-EMS service," said Dan Reed, retiring Mont Alto Fire Department fire chief.

Local fire and ambulance companies rely on volunteers, and increasingly on a few paid drivers and emergency medical technicians. They also count on bingo, gun drawings, dinners and carnivals for money to operate.

Fire companies across Pennsylvania appear to be meeting the needs of their communities, but constant fundraising is taking its toll, according to a 2012 mail survey of fire companies for the Center for Rural Pennsylvania.

"Written comments included in the survey would suggest there is considerable doubt about the long-term viability of financially sustaining fire companies through constant fund raising efforts," according to the center and the Pennsylvania Fire and Emergency Services Institute. "It appears that the more fund raising events the company sponsored the more firefighters that left the company or became inactive. This finding could suggest that many fund raising events may contribute to the loss of firefighters; but it does not necessarily deter new firefighters from joining."

The typical fire company in the survey had 17 fundraising events a year and responded to 551 fire calls. The number of firefighters who regularly answer calls for their fire companies has dropped from an average of 18 in 2001 to 17 in 2012, not statistically significant according to the survey.

Municipal leaders in the Shippensburg area thought the issue was significant enough to pony up $1,500 each for recruiting and retaining firefighters.

"Municipalities need to kick in," said Samuel Cressler, a supervisor in Southampton Township, Franklin County. "If a person is interested in volunteering for fire fighting, if they have only 15 hours a week, I don't want them doing fundraising. I want them training and running calls."

A volunteer firefighter today might spend 70 percent of his or her time on fundraising, up from 60 percent 10 years ago, according to Reed. Mont Alto fire company averages three fundraisers a month, plus bingo 50 weeks of the year.

"I was a volunteer for 20 years," Cressler said. "Fundraising is a big deterrent. If you're a young man or woman, you want to do the exciting stuff. Once they call bingo every Saturday night or flip burgers, that burns people out. Spending a few dollars on fire trucks or buildings is nothing compared to a paid department."

Rural Metal Township is considering a Local Services Tax to support its small fire department. Each person working for an employer in the township would pay $52 a year.

A pumper or rescue truck costs about $500,000 and costs continue to soar.

Reed, who has volunteered for 36 years, said that raising money for fire companies increasingly involves government politics. Local municipalities debate over territories and how best to save tax dollars, sometimes at the expense of fire companies. Mont Alto Fire Department successfully negotiated big-government bureaucracy in recent years to land more than a quarter of a million dollars in grants to buy radios, a brush truck and forest fire fighting tools.

Demands to train volunteers have also increased. More than two-thirds of fire companies in 2012 required monthly training, up from 60 percent in 2001, according to the survey.

Training is necessary, but can be a catch-22 for new recruits, according to Reed.

"I understand the need for up-to-date training," he said. "Houses burn differently than they did in the 1970s. A lot of people don't have the drive or determination today to take the required training on their own time. Paid firefighters train on the clock. You have to be exceptional to go through all that training."

"There are less volunteers today than in the past," Cressler said. "It's almost a part-time job with the training and increased calls. I don't think volunteerism is dead. It's difficult."

He said communities need to offer incentives to volunteers, such as a modest retirement stipend.

Fewer volunteers work where they live. According to the survey, fewer than a quarter of firefighters in 21 of every 25 fire companies worked in their company's first-due area.

The days of walking away from the factory at the sound of the siren are gone, Cressler said. He stresses the importance of small neighborhood fire departments and locating recreation parks adjacent to the fire halls. The sirens and flashing red lights at the firehouse may grip the enthusiasm of a kid swinging on the swing or shooting hoops.