ABOUT
Not Your Ordinary Athlete is a creative campaign to re-present firefighters as athletes. Our goal is to highlight the competitiveness, comradery, and courage that exists in the occupation of the fire service. Like sports athletes, the men and women of the fire service are required to go through months of grueling physical training to be a part of this elite organization. There are many similarities between the fire service and sports, but while sports athletes are playing a game, we’re not.
SOCIAL IMPACT
Firefighters are just as visible as athletes and are pillars in the communities they serve. Just like professional athletes, firefighters are role models to the younger population who look up to them. With the increase of violence in inner cities across America and the decreased interest in volunteer firefighting, we see an opportunity to promote the unique opportunity of firefighting to at-risk youth through creative marketing and community engagement via youth and high school sports. This concept will accomplish two major goals:
- Bring awareness about the opportunity to have to an excellent and highly rewarding career serving your community.
- Allow firefighters to connect with youth specifically through a shared love of organized sports.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), there were an estimated 1,115,000 career and volunteer firefighters in the United States in 2018. Of the total number of firefighters 370,000 (33%) were career firefighters and 745,000 (67%) were volunteer firefighters. In recent years, volunteer firefighting has been declining in appeal to the younger generation. Currently, two-thirds of America’s 30,000 fire departments are volunteer-run, but since 2015, their numbers have fallen, from 814,850 to 682,600. Shortages of emergency-medical technicians and paramedics are also affecting communities. With the decline of volunteers across the country, fire departments are challenged to respond to an increased call volume due to the growth of their communities, especially urban cities.
Fire departments across the country have not been successful in recruiting new members to maintain adequate staffing. This leaves an aging population at risk, especially in rural communities where smaller departments exist.
Number of Firefighters in the U.S., 1983, 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2015-2017
| Year | Total | Career | Volunteer |
| 1983* | 1,111,200 | 226,600 | 884,600 |
| 1990 | 1,025,650 | 253,000 | 772,650 |
| 2000 | 1,064,150 | 286,800 | 777,350 |
| 2010 | 1,103,300 | 335,150 | 768,150 |
| 2015 | 1,149,300 | 345,600 | 814,850 |
| 2016 | 1,090,100 | 361,100 | 729,000 |
| 2017 | 1,056,200 | 373,600 | 682,600 |
Chart Cited: National Volunteer Fire Council https://www.nvfc.org/new-nfpa-report-finds-significant-decline-in-volunteer-firefighter-numbers/
Athletic apparel companies have been a driving force in the recruitment of young men and women in sports. AAU, High School and Collegiate athletes have been influenced to join an organization or institution because of creative marketing by brand campaigns. We believe that a similar approach can be used to help recruit young men and women into the fire service. Every kid will not have the opportunity to play a sport at the collegiate or professional level, but every kid can have the opportunity to be a professional firefighter.
