Video: Fire dept. creates 'Dynamite' recruitment video
One firefighter brought the music video idea to training one night, mandating the volunteers to lip sync and dance to 'Dynamite' by Taio Cruz
Aug 16, 2015
The Meadville Tribune
MEADVILLE, Pa. — "We need men and women to staff our equipment but we really are a fun group of guys and girls," said Brad Johnston, fire chief of West Mead No. 1 Fire Department.
That was the general idea behind the new recruitment tactic the fire department tried out this summer: a music video performance designed for social media sites.
Right now, first-responder volunteer groups are having trouble attracting and retaining enough volunteers needed to effectively answer calls, Johnston said. Like most fire departments in the county and state, there is a general trend of increasing calls for help with fewer available volunteers. For example, West Mead No. 1’s annual call total has risen from 50 in 1976 to more than 200 in recent years.
In an effort to reach out to young people and encourage them to volunteer, Johnston brought the music video idea to training one evening, mandating the volunteers to lip-sync and dance to “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz.
“Everyone was happy and smiling and working hard,” Johnston said of the filming process.
Once the video was edited, it was posted to Facebook, YouTube and the fire department’s website, with an initial wave of positive feedback.
However, while the fire department typically sees one new application each month, there have only been two applications since the posting of the video, what Johnston considers an increase but nothing major.
“They just aren’t beating down the fire station door,” he said.
The video was designed to reach an audience of late teens to individuals in their early 30s, specifically through the use of Facebook and social media.
By targeting a younger audience, Johnston hopes to attract individuals who will be easier to move through training, as the hours required are usually more manageable for individuals who have yet to settle down and start a family.
“It takes a long time to train a new member before you can go in and fight a structure fire,” said Paul Taormina, 65, a volunteer for about 35 years.
Complete training for volunteers can take between two and three years, Taormina said, explaining this becomes harder when individuals are working full-time and have families.
Ryan Zook, 35, joined the department in 2012 but admitted that his family had to sacrifice a lot during his training, since he went through the process fairly quickly. Since fire departments can have members as young as 14, Zook said younger members have a definite advantage because students can spend their summers during high school going through training.
“We are trying to be very present in social media to get the word out there,” Zook said. “Raising long-term awareness though, for me, is more important than getting five applications in one month.”
In the future, Johnston said there is a tentative plan to interview volunteers with the department and put those video clips online as well. Since volunteers can be as young as 14, Johnston hopes to hear from people with the fire department who are at all stages of their lives. This next wave of social media promotion is tentatively planned to happen within the next three or four months, Johnston said.
Zook personally wishes to see more operational videos depicting volunteers in the field but does understand there are many challenges that would come with such an endeavor, he said.
Johnston stressed anyone who is interested in joining can help out in some way. Taormina seconded the sentiment, saying, “The more the merrier—there’s no easy way to recruit new members though.”
“We’ll certainly take anyone who is willing to join us,” he said, adding that currently about 15 percent of the West Mead 1 fire department is female.
Copyright 2015 The Meadville Tribune
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All Rights Reserved
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
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