Open Days are a fantastic opportunity for fire service personnel to open their doors to their community. All members are invited in to give a glimpse at some of the tireless work they do protecting those around them every day, while providing opportunities for them to ask questions, see the equipment they use and help support our Charity in the process.
And there are a few steps you can take to ensure yours will be a success.
Rachel Streeting, a firefighter with Warwickshire FRS, has been one of the key organisers of her service’s Open Days for over 20 years.
She says: “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it, it’s definitely worth doing. It’s something all your station, other colleagues and communities can actually get involved in, and it’s a really good way to help spread the word about how good The Fire Fighters Charity is too.”
Here, she’s shared her top five tips to ensure they’re a success every time:
- Local support: reach out to local businesses and contacts to see if they could sponsor any of the activities on the day, or potentially donate raffle prizes. Perhaps they could display a banner for the Open Day itself, place items and leaflets in a cafe or something else. In turn, you could then display their logos to help support them in return.
- Support on station: discuss plans within your service and on station to collaborate ideas. You could even form a little committee.
- Start a float: having a float is essential to plan in advance, as you’ll need lots of change on the day for people arriving with cash for activities.
- Match funding: this is surprisingly easy to do but requires a few months notice.
- Plan ahead: start booking your event early to make life easier for you and your colleagues. It also means you won’t forget anything!
Rachel also recorded a few tips in a video interview here:
Find out more about planning your own Open Day here:
And you can see a few photos from a successful 2022 Open Day at Nuneaton here:
