New Jersey Volunteers Hope YouTube Video Lures Recruits
WOODLAND PARK, N.J. -- The West Paterson Volunteer Fire Department has found a new way to reach out to prospective recruits.
Department officials last week posted a music video to content-sharing Web site YouTube.com to drum up new members for the 70-member department, especially aiming at young people.
The six-minute documentary-style video gives a firsthand look at what it's like for a department firefighter to go out on a call and battle a blaze....Continue Reading and Watch Video
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"It was an idea we had to get new recruits interested," Fire Chief Paul Salomone Jr. said Friday. "We're trying to get some interest from the kids at the [Passaic Valley Regional] high school. We want them to join as junior members."
The video was shot, produced and edited by Lt. Ernie Berthold, Salomone said.
Set to sirens and frenzied strains from an electric guitar, the video includes shots of firefighters suiting up, riding in a firetruck to a call and fighting a building fire. As of Friday afternoon, the video had 260 unique views and was linked to several social networking sites.
"We were trying to put it together to generate interest from the younger people," said First Lt. Todd Hollritt, who appears in the video. "We figured this was the best way to go about it."
In the department's junior volunteer firefighters' program, people between ages 16 and 18 train and suit up with the department ? but cannot fight fires.
Salomone said the department would like to make another video documentary to show at Passaic Valley Regional High School.
The department responds to about 340 emergency calls annually, Hollritt said.
Salomone said the department will keep "West Paterson" in the department's name and will not change it to Woodland Park, the borough's name that was effective Jan 1. He said that is what most of the volunteer firefighters want.
This story was taken from the news source stated above. It is not necessarily the opinion of The Elwood Vol Fire Company or it's members.
