Maybe you have some ideas...?

[laina66]

Hello there!
I am the new Sergeant of the Oneonta State emergency Squad, which is an entirely student-run campus-wide first repsonder squad. We tend to all emergencies on campus, and our city fire department transports pt's to the hospital.
As we are not Student Association- funded, we are severely lacking in money. While we get paid for all medical supplies by the student health center, we are in deparate need of other items as well. We have 4 rip-resistant jackets with reflective bands and a reflective star of life on the back...however they have been around almost as long as the squad has and the reflective bits are tearing off and the jackets look terrible. They are also dark blue and black and we are not as visible as we should be in the dark (we learned this when I was directing traffic during a cardiac arrest call that happened in the middle of a road! eek!) We also could use some other items, such as new radios for the officers since 3 out of 5 do not work for long amounts of time off the charger. And by long I mean in excess of about 45 minutes! Our bunkroom has "storage spots" for members to keep bedding, etc...but they are old shelves the college gave us which are falling apart. Not to mention they are not separated into sections and are wide open which causes stuff to fall out all of the time and we end up with piles of crap on the floor.
If anyone knows either a company who would be willing to help us out or some awesome fundraising ideas it would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks!
OSES 66/5

 

[LucidResq]

Hahaha I'm relating to you so much here. I'm a sergeant on Arapahoe Rescue Patrol... nation's only real (non-explorer, independent) youth-led SAR team. All of our members are in high school. We also assist fire, police and EMS agencies with calls, training, events, etc. We receive some money from the sheriff's office we operate under and other local agencies we assist, but money is always a huge problem.

We ask that new applicants provide $80 for their basic supplies like patches, traffic vests, name badges, etc. That helps a lot.

There are two crucial relationships that get us money and supplies that we need: our relationships with other local agencies and our relationship with former members. We assist fire depts with scene security, changing air tanks, rolling hose, dealing with evacuated family & neighbors, on-shore ops at dive rescues, etc. We rub their backs so they rub ours. Local fire depts have donated money and used supplies like backboards. The same goes for police depts... we help them with evidence searches, crime scene security, training (playing a hostage-taker in a SWAT training is kick-***), and traffic direction. They have also donated money and old radios.

We also try to keep in contact with old members. Our team is 50 years old so we have hundreds of old members. The team helped many of them get jobs as firefighters, sheriffs, even CIA agents so they feel strongly about helping us and many of our funds come from old members.

We also contact lots of companies . For example, Timberland donated like 50 boots to us last year. If you do get a donation such as this I strongly recommend giving them something back. We took a picture of all of us wearing their boots after a search and sent it to them as a thanks. We have also recently been in touch with the producers of Oprah and they've expressed interest in having us on the show in a few months. We're all crossing our fingers that she'll do something very Oprah-ish and give us some stuff.

We also hold free car washes annually and ask for donations. In the past we've had a day at Noodles where a certain percentage of their income from that day at a certain store was donated. Many restaurants will do something like that for you.

Anyways, good luck!

 

[Canoeman]

You already have some good ideas there guys. I would still look to someone associated with the alumni and just write a letter and ask for some funds directly. A well written appeal to the "right" individual will bring more than you might realize.

 

[Jon]

I'm not sure how you are dispatched, or how big your school is, but why not go to the Public Safety Department (Police/Security) and see what they can help you with? They might have older uniform coat, traffic vests, or radios that they aren't using.

They might also be able to get money into THEIR budget to assist you. If they are upgrading radios, why not get you guys on the same network as public safety?