Volunteer Firefighting Fundraising

Another year has come and gone in what seems a wisp of vapor as James so picturesquely illustrates…For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4:14)  

Volunteer Fire Departments are proud of our traditions, and we are reluctant to let them go. After all, if it has worked for the past 100 years, why won’t it work for the next 100?  

As I sit here in the cold, rainy, unpredictable weather of Connecticut, I cannot help but look forward to the next ‘Cruisin for Solutions’… We had a great week of fun and sun, oh yeah, and we learned quite a bit from each other.  

If your department is anything like mine, you probably spend more time planning and executing fundraisers then actually fighting fires. This is simply due to the fact that while we may not have a fire every month, we have an electric bill every month.  

Wouldn't it be nice to always have the required cash on hand to purchase new fire apparatus, an ambulance, station construction and improvements? We all know that saving for these projects may be the conservative approach but there always seems to be less money at the end of the year to "sock away" for these purchases.   

It all started two years ago when our Chief read an article about deep fried Twinkies to which we all asked, deep fried what?   

In the business world, marketing can make or break a company. Let’s take a look Microsoft. Microsoft is the largest software company in the U.S. The question is, how did they get there? Microsoft’s product, especially in its infancy, was inferior to most other products. What set Microsoft apart was its aggressive marketing. The same goes for AOL. If aggressive marketing is good enough for the largest companies, why not for our fire companies?  

If your department is anything like mine, you probably spend more time planning and executing fundraisers than actually fighting fires. This is simply due to the fact that while we may not have a fire every month, we will have electric bills.