Globe, DuPont Protection Technologies (DuPont), and the National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC) are pleased to announce two more recipients in the 2015 Globe Gear Giveaway. This month, the Friendship (IN) Volunteer Fire Department and the Rockaway Point (NY) Fire Department were each awarded four sets of new Globe turnout gear.
Globe has partnered with DuPont and the NVFC to give away a total of 52 sets of turnout gear in 2015. Two departments are being awarded each month through December. This is the fourth year for the Globe Gear Giveaway Program, which provides sets of state-of-the-art Globe turnout gear to volunteer departments in need.
The Friendship Volunteer Fire Department (FVFD) serves several small villages in rural Ripley County in southern Indiana. As with most small organizations, it faces challenges such as the need to find, recruit, and train new firefighters; financial pressures from local government; dwindling budgets; and aging equipment. FVFD has focused its efforts on recruiting new firefighters to be the future of its organization. Currently, they have two new members going through the Firefighter I and Firefighter II certification. Unfortunately, of the department’s 22 sets of gear, 18 are more than 10 years old. This means the FVFD is unable to issue new or even complete gear to new recruits. Through this gear donation, it will be able to better protect its new and existing members with complete, fitted, compliant gear.
The 45 volunteers at Rockaway Point Fire Department (RPFD) provide service to 15,000 residents in the beach-front community of Breezy Point, NY. The community was decimated by Hurricane Sandy in 2012 and has been slowly rebuilding ever since. RPFD lost three of its five vehicles to flooding during the storm. After the hurricane, RPFD gear was professionally cleaned, but some of it was condemned. It received many gear donations in the days after the storm, but most of it was nearing the end of its life span. However, it continues to use this out-of-date gear because it is trying to rebuild the firehouse and replace apparatus and has no money in the budget to replace the outdated PPE. The new turnout gear will enable RPFD to replace some of its outdated gear, keeping its members safer and allowing funds to be saved for other needs.
For more information, visit www.globeturnoutgear.com.
