Jacob Smith is a third-generation volunteer firefighter who has been volunteering for almost 25 years.
The Deere & Co. employee also has been asked the same question many times over the years: Why do you volunteer?
“When people ask me that, I always tell them: ‘If not me, who?’”
That question, the need for many more volunteer firefighters across the nation and the changing responsibilities for the volunteers are all addressed in the new film “Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat,” which premiered Saturday night, April 22, at Deere & Co. World Headquarters in Moline.
The 90-minute film, sponsored by Deere & Co. in collaboration with the National Volunteer Fire Council, weaves together stories of volunteer firefighters across the nation. It looks at their training, their changing job duties and especially the need for more people to step up and become a volunteer.
“It’s a recruitment piece. We want to inspire people to join volunteer fire departments,” Gary Matoso, the director of “Odd Hours,” said after the movie was shown to a crowd of several hundred people – most of them Quad Cities area volunteer firefighters and their families, and John Deere employees.
The goal of the film, which will be distributed nationally, is to attract more volunteers through the National Volunteer Fire Council’s “Make Me A Firefighter” campaign.
The campaign’s aim is to recruit thousands of people across the country into those volunteer roles. Seven out of 10 firefighters and emergency responders in the U.S. are volunteers, and almost every department in the nation needs more help, according to the fire council.
“Our goal is to help people across the country — no matter where they come from — see themselves in these roles and take the step to volunteer,” according to the council website.
Deere & Co. became a sponsor of the “Odd Hours” to shine a light on the vital importance of these volunteers. Also, John Deere himself was a firefighter volunteer in the 1800s, Nate Clark, the director of Corporate Social Responsibility at John Deere and president of the John Deere Foundation, told the crowd before the showing in Deere’s auditorium Saturday night.
Being a volunteer also is vital to many Deere employers. Last year, Deere workers recorded more than 13,000 hours as volunteer firefighters and emergency responders. That commitment earned their volunteer departments nearly $225,000 in rewards from the John Deere Foundation, according to Deere.
Several John Deere dealers provided financial support for the film’s distribution, and all Deere dealers will be able to use the film free of charge to help local volunteer recruitment efforts.
The movie looks at volunteer fighters in departments across the country – from a small farm town in Kansas to Washington state, Texas, Virginia and other places.
Much of the film centers on the tough training eight new recruits have to endure during a 12-week course at a facility in Washington. Some of that training resembles a military-style boot camp with marching, following orders and spit-shining shoes.
“It’s not all rainbows and lollipops. It takes discipline,” said one trainer.
Much of the training, though, centers on teaching the recruits proper techniques to fight fires and rescue people.
In one scene, a trainer shows a group of young recruits the proper way to search a smoke-filled room for victims. She tells them to feel around the floor and search inside and around furniture because those are places children might hide when they are scared.
“Are you tired? I don’t care. There are people in here. Find them. Get into fifth f— gear. Find them,” the trainer tells the recruits during the exercise.
“Odd Hours” gets its name from a sign placed outside a fire department that was looking for volunteers. Some of the other subjects covered in the film included:
- Changing responsibilities: Volunteers do a lot more than fighting fires. In fact, most calls – at least 75% of the calls – are medical related. (Before the film, Glenn Pope, a Deere employee and a volunteer in Viola, Illinois, and Mr. Smith, a longtime volunteer in Coal Valley and Hillsdale, Illinois, told the QCBJ that the vast majority of their calls centered on medical issues. In “Odd Hours,” many of the volunteers were also kept busy with animal-related calls, such as getting a cow out of a swimming pool, dogs out of wells and a horse out of a hayloft. One firefighter called the changing duties as the “evolution” of the work.
- The need for volunteers: In “Odd Hours,” firefighters are shown going to great lengths to get volunteers. In one scene, an elderly woman named Barbara Williams said she was interested in volunteering at a local department by doing various administrative tasks. Chief Doug Monaco of the Little Fork (Virginia) Fire and Rescue Company told her they didn’t need administrative help, but they did need EMT volunteers. The chief convinced Ms. Williams to come out of retirement and become an EMT for the department. “There is no such thing as too many volunteers. We will never turn somebody away,” another fire chief said in the movie.
- The lack of volunteers: The movie also covers the reasons behind the lack of volunteers. In the smaller communities, this often centers around people leaving for bigger cities and job opportunities. “It seems everybody gets out of here when they can,” said Alan Michl, a volunteer firefighter, town mayor, farmer and school bus driver in Exeter, Nebraska.
Before the showing, Mr. Smith said people’s busy schedules also get in the way of becoming volunteers. “You now have traveling sports teams (for the children). You have traveling everything that keeps people busy,” he said. Mr. Smith added that people might not volunteer because of the required training required people to give up some of their time. “It’s not just putting water on a fire. … This is like having another part-time job,” he said.
- Solutions: The film “Odd Hours” did offer scenes of optimism as some departments are finding ways to bring in more people from their communities. For instance, in Monsey, New York, some men from the Haredi Orthodox Jewish community wanted to be volunteer firefighters. However, men in that community do not shave their beards because of the rules of their religion. That’s a problem because self-contained breathing apparatus used by fire departments cannot fit properly over facial hair. The local fire department was able to find a solution by creating a new category of volunteers who do not enter burning structures and therefore do not need to use the breathing equipment.
- Changing lives: The film also outlines the many benefits of being a volunteer. In addition to helping people in need, the work also benefits young people. “Odd Hours” shows how becoming a volunteer helped some young adults from a life of crime to a life of helping others. For others, volunteering helped give meaning to their lives. “I knew I was going to love it. I didn’t know I would live for it,” said Jenna Dunbar, a volunteer firefighter in California, in the film.
Before the film’s premier, Deere employees who also also serve as volunteer firefighters said local departments are in vital need of more volunteers. Mr. Smith said Coal Valley and Hillsdale fire departments could each use 30 more volunteers.
Mr. Pope said that in addition to helping people in the community, people should consider being a volunteer to become a local “rock star.”
“If you want to be the rock star of the community, they are the guys. They have the most responsibilities,” he added.
