Sullivan County Rescue Squads Appeal For Volunteers

BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Sullivan County emergency medical officials are using a $450,000 marketing campaign to get ahead of recruiting problems they say are hurting volunteer fire departments and rescue squads across the country.

“We need the people to understand they need to support us,” Sullivan County Firefighter Association President Mark Bowery said Monday afternoon during a news conference held to kick off the effort.

According to a report published last year by the U.S. Fire Administration, the number of people who participate in volunteer fire departments and rescue squads has dropped by almost 10 percent over the past 20 years. The report cites a lack of time for service, health problems and family responsibilities as the top three reasons people are no longer willing to volunteer. Bowery said the county has not yet reached a “critical stage” in recruiting and retaining volunteers because it has a strong commitment from families in which multiple generations sign up to help their local agencies.

“Many families have two and three generations of volunteers,” Sullivan County West Fire Chief Drew Deakins said in a news release. “Volunteering is as much a part of them as their last names.”

But Bowery said he isn’t taking any chances because less than 1 percent of county residents help their volunteer fire and rescue squads. He said this is in part because the squads have done a poor job of promoting themselves in the past.

“We want to be proactive before we [have recruiting problems],” he said, adding that it would cost the county about $30 million to hire enough people to replace its 600 volunteer firefighters and rescue squad members. “We need the people to understand they need to support us.”

The new campaign features TV and radio advertisements starring former Tennessee Titans tight end Erron Kinney, billboards and an after-school program for high school students. Bowery said he has spent the past few years working on the effort, which he said is the first of its kind in Tennessee. He secured almost $420,000 worth of public money to pay for the program, including a $388,000 federal grant.

Bowery said the campaign’s central theme will be “Join Us” and will show people how they can help the volunteer departments other than becoming firefighters or paramedics.

He hired Marne Brobeck, co-owner of Branding Iron, a Bristol, Tenn., advertising firm, to get the message to the community.

Brobeck said the campaign’s first television and radio advertisements will feature Kinney, who serves as a volunteer firefighter and “jumped at the opportunity” to help spearhead the county’s initiative.

“The Tri-Cities has done some things that are special,” said Kinney, who has served on a volunteer fire department since he was 13. “This needs to happen throughout the state.”

Brobeck said Kinney’s radio and TV spots will start this week and run on local stations until this fall. A second series of ads set to run after the holidays will feature another spokesperson from a different field, he said.

To help develop a more direct relationship between a community’s residents and its volunteers, the campaign also is set to include billboards that will target people who are served by a particular agency. For example, signs will be put up in Piney Flats that feature photographs of the Piney Flats Volunteer Fire Department.

The final phase of the “Join Us” campaign will be after-school programs that Brobeck said will train high school students in emergency medicine, vehicle extrication and basic firefighter techniques.

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