Community Fire and Rescue of Van Etten, NY, is entirely volunteer-based. During the 2022 Safety Stand Down, it helped increase its members’ situational awareness in multiple capacities by implementing a newsletter series. Each day of the week, its volunteers received a newsletter focusing on situational awareness tips for a particular topic. Topics included structure fires, EMS, wildland, traffic incident management, and acts of violence. Links were embedded in each issue so members could get more information. To increase engagement with the material, the department hosted a drill night for each of the daily topics.
The 2021 Safety Stand Down inspired Community Fire and Rescue to place more emphasis on its members’ health and wellness. Since then, the department has been working to develop a Heart Healthy Fitness Program. This includes creating daily workouts and acquiring gym equipment for its volunteers to use in-house.