If there’s one thing every Texas County volunteer fire department chief would agree upon it’s the importance of membership dues.
While conducting fundraising for his department last week at the annual Raymondville Carnival and Picnic, Raymondville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Mike Jackson shared his views on the subject.
“It’s very hard to make ends meet, and the dues are crucial in supporting our operation,” Jackson said, “from fueling and maintaining our trucks, to keeping our insurance going and everything else. The price of everything is always going up, and members paying their dues allows us to provide the kind of coverage for them that they want.
“It’s pretty simple, really. If you don’t have fuel in the trucks, you can’t go out on that next call.”
Jackson said fundraising at events like the Raymondville Picnic, Festival of Yesteryear, truck pulls, kids’ activities and other methods are a way to take in money through offering people a good time.
“We do what we can to provide the community ways to have fun with our fundraising,” he said. “It also helps us get to know the community and they get to know us as well.”
Jackson said that fundraising, donations and various state and federal grants are all critical to the existence of a volunteer fire department, but the importance of dues can’t be overstated. Without contributions from all funding sources, the comprehensive training Jackson and company are constantly involved in (including structural and wild land fire suppression, medical and hazardous material response, search and rescue, vehicle extraction, high-angle technical rope rescue and more) wouldn’t happen.
“Our volunteers’ training is among the best,” Jackson said. “Without the support of all the residents and landowners in the Raymondville fire protection area, none of that would be possible.”
Jackson said the $45 cost of a year’s dues is like “cheap insurance.”
“And I don’t think a lot of people fully understand how much is costs for us to operate,” he said. “We have the same training and we’re held to the same standards as paid departments. Paying dues really is a great way to help yourself and help us.”
As Jackson points out, volunteer firefighters do much more than douse flames.
“We run all emergency services,” he said. “We run medical services, we respond to requests for help by ambulance crews – like lift-assist – and we set up landing zones for helicopters and we tend to car wrecks.
“A good example of what we sometimes do was during the last snow we had, an ambulance crew couldn’t get to a patient and we took them in and out in a four-wheel-drive pickup.”
The Raymondville Fire Department recently received a donation from the Houston Do-It Center and general manager Chris Davis that funded the construction of a wooden shack at the community’s fairgrounds that will house department representatives during events and provide multiple forms of firefighter training.
The bottom line is, Jackson said, local firefighters do what they do because they love the idea of helping others.
“Our volunteers give up so much of their time and they’re not paid for it,” he said. “But we’re committed to putting a lot of effort into giving our dues-paying members the best we can give them.”
The Raymondville VFD is always interested in welcoming new firefighters and currently has openings on its board of directors. For more information, call Jackson at 417-331-9784, or department treasurer Dawn Kaufman at 573-466-2254.
It’s pretty simple, really. If you don’t have fuel in the trucks, you can’t go out on that next call.”