Mary Max Cinemas to host volunteer fire department film event
Oct. 23—The public is invited to join volunteer fire departments from Walton, Galveston, Twelve Mile and New Waverly for a showing of "Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat."
The film about volunteer fire departments will be shown 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 4 at Mary Max Cinemas, according to New Waverly Fire Department Captain Jared Wisely.
The film, according to oddhoursfilm.com, highlights volunteer fire service across the country, such as in California, Nebraska and New York. The website says these locations serve as a backdrop for stories about service, personal growth and finding purpose. "Odd Hours, No Pay, Cool Hat" was released in July and created by Hold Fast Features, Vignette, John Deere and the National Volunteer Fire Council, according to nvfc.org. Wisely said it was made for recruitment in the volunteer fire service.
"John Deere and their customers are a lot of farmers who are in rural communities who rely on volunteer fire departments to respond to their fields that may be on fire or respond to their loved one having a medical emergency," Wisely said. "And then they partnered up with National Volunteer Firefighter Council, who is a resource for us for recruitment, and they came together and produced the movie."
According to Wisely, the event is free and popcorn and soda will be provided by the Community Foundation. Those who arrive when doors open at 9 a.m. will have a chance to enter into raffle drawings to win free prizes, Wisely said.
"The Community Foundation has agreed to buy popcorn and pop for all the attendees. So, you'll get a free snack, and then each department that is there will have a booth or a table in the lobby that you can talk to them prior to the event and then after the movie, you can talk to them," Wisely said. "They'll have some tools there on the tables, they'll have their rigs out there in the parking lot. So, you can kind of see what equipment they have... how they use it and just talk. And if you're interested, then they can set you up with getting an application and getting on board."
Wisely said he has seen the movie and said it is interesting and moving. He said he can relate with a lot of the people in it, as he said they are doing it because they want to do something to help their neighbor.
"That's a lot of the reason I do it too. I mean, somebody needs help, they've called 911 because they're at their worst time in their life and they've come into [a] predicament, they've got no idea how to get out of it," Wisely said. "And then, here we come to basically save the day and help get you out of that situation."
This event, according to Wisely, is important so people have an idea of what the volunteer fire service is, what they do and how much of an impact they have in the fire service. He said the volunteer fire service is also a large money saving career.
"... there's over 700,000 volunteer firefighters in the United States ... the average salary... I'm quoting Indeed here, I wrote it down, the average salary is about [$52,000] a year. So, do the math. That's several billions of dollars that the fire department save, volunteer fire departments save, taxpayers, because if all of our guys and gals had to be paid $50,000 a year plus their benefits to come to your house that's on fire, we're just one department... [we] would have to raise taxes," Wisely said. "Not to count the nine other departments that are in the county. So, it's a very big thing to keep recruitment numbers up, to keep volunteer fire departments alive, to keep taxes low."
Mary Max Cinemas is located at 3910 Lexington Road in Logansport.
Wisely said Mary Max Cinemas told him the auditorium the film will be shown in seats 175 people comfortably.
"If... we have 175 people there, I will be absolutely ecstatic," he said. "And if we get one person out this event to sign onto any county fire department, I will be ecstatic. That's really what I'm hoping for. Ultimately, it'd be really great if all the county fire departments got at least one person out of it. And... don't think that we're looking for somebody that can go into a burning building. If you've got skills that you know how to work on big trucks, we've got a job for you. If you've got clerical skills and can enter run reports, we've got a job for you. If you only want to do the medical side of things, that's the majority of our calls is medical calls, we got a job for you. If you just want to drive a truck and help us out getting rigs there and operate the truck, we got a job for you. As well as any other department in the county."
