In its ongoing effort to protect the lives of its community members, the Lambertville-New Hope Ambulance & Rescue Squad announced the launch of its new volunteer recruitment and awareness campaign, started as a way to encourage community members to join its ranks and become an Emergency Medical Technician, K-9 search-and-rescue, marine rescue or youth squad volunteer.
The rescue squad’s newest slogan “Ordinary People Doing Extraordinary Things” speaks to the important work that the squad’s staff, composed mostly of volunteers, does everyday. It also speaks to the idea that anyone can join the team and make a difference, no matter their background.
There are a variety of opportunities available for prospective volunteers:
- The Emergency Medical Services helps save the lives of the residents of New Hope Borough, Lambertville City, and Stockton Borough – in addition to portions of West Amwell, Delaware and Solebury townships;
- The K-9 search-and-rescue handlers and dogs are certified in all aspects of K-9 search and rescue including, wilderness search, water recovery, human remains (cadaver) search, and collapsed structure search;
- The marine rescue services unit helps save lives during dangerous floods or during a river rescue; and
- Members of the youth squad, ages 12-18, learn CPR, EMT and other first aid skills in order to assist first responders on the ambulance crew.
To help kick off the recruitment campaign, the section dedicated to volunteer recruitment of the squad’s website, www.LNHARS.org, has been revamped to help volunteers get a sense of how they can play a part. The new campaign will also develop content to post on the rescue squad’s official social media accounts in order to develop a loyal following through “likes,” comments and shares of specific posts. Additionally, there will be a dedicated effort to raising public awareness of squad activities through press releases and other print and electronic materials.
“We’re really excited to see how the community responds to the big changes we’ve got coming down the pipeline as this new campaign really starts to kick into gear,” said Chief Jason Strauss. “Our rescue squad is dedicated to helping save lives and we know there are others out there who want to be a part of that. This new campaign is the perfect way for us to reach out to them and bring them on board.”
To help assist with the campaign, the rescue squad partnered with The Communication Solutions Group Inc., a Jenkintown, Pa.-based full-service public relations and marketing firm that specializes in providing recruitment support to EMS companies and fire stations.
This new partnership will provide the Lambertville-New Hope Ambulance & Rescue Squad a greater array of resources to use in its efforts to seek volunteers and promote the exciting opportunities available to them, said Leza Raffel, president of The Communication Solutions Group Inc.
In the past, volunteers for ambulance services and firefighters used to come from generations of family members.
“It’s not like that anymore. It used to be your father would join, then you would join, then you’d pass it on to your son and so on,” said President Don “Tex” Huggins. “Today people are too busy and our volunteer numbers have dropped as a result. We need to find new ways to reach new people.”
In addition to sending mailings to the community and updating its website the squad will secure speaking engagements for members to promote volunteerism to the community. Today recruitment efforts in local communities are among the best way to ensure a healthy volunteer membership team.
“You have to reach out and market to people,” said Raffel. “A lot of times people live in the community for years and don’t even realize that you can be a volunteer, that there’s an opportunity for you. So I think it’s great that they’re reaching out to make people aware of the opportunities.”
For more information or to sign up to become a volunteer, visit www.LNHARS.com.
