Peters steps up firefighter recruitment efforts
Peters Township Fire Department has released a short video aimed at getting new volunteers.
The 90-second video, put together by Canonsburg resident Dan Gabany, film producer and professor at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, was released this month and can be found on the department’s website, www.ptfd64.org, its Facebook page and on YouTube. It is aimed at attracting new recruits, who play a major role at the department, which is a hybrid of paid staff and volunteers.
“We did a video three years ago,” said Bill Gaughan, Peters’ assistant fire chief. “This one is geared toward the next generation.”
Gaughan said the department likes to recruit junior firefighters, those 16 to 18 years old. When a volunteer is that age, he or she is taught the basics of firefighting and can do anything a regular firefighter does except go into burning buildings.
“The idea is to bring people into the pipeline,” Gaughan said.
The video, made public Oct. 5, shows both members and volunteers going about their duties, responding to calls and also discusses the benefits of joining.
“We have already gotten 7,000 hits on the video on our Facebook page,” said Jordan Cramer, a volunteer firefighter who has been a member of the department since 2009.
Peters currently has a dozen full- and part-time firefighters and 25 volunteers. Ideally, Gaughan said the department would like to attract five new recruits from the video. One person, who would be eligible to become a junior firefighter, already has expressed an interest in becoming a member, he added.
The department has a second, longer video it plans to release soon on social media. This video, which runs about three minutes, shows firefighters in training and what it means to be a member of the department. Department members paid for both videos, Gaughan said.
Peters is not the only fire department in the South Hills to release recruitment and promotional videos. Both the Mt. Lebanon and North Strabane fire departments have done similar projects. “We got eight new members in a two-year span from our video,” said Kim Bonifield, secretary of North Strabane Fire Department.
Cramer said The Art Institute has taken on the fire department as a pro bono client and will be working on new marketing materials and a website for the department. The new marketing information will detail services offered by the department outside its traditional role. This includes CPR classes, installation of home smoke detectors and car seats in vehicles.
“We want people to know what services we offer,” said Michael McLaughlin, Peters deputy chief.