On the evening of Monday, January 23, 2012 forty generous residents of Flourtown and Erdenheim, Pennsylvania were surprised to find a fire truck in front of their house and two or three Flourtown firefighters at their front door. On most days firefighters only come to your house when things are going badly, but on this day they were there for a different reason.
That reason was to thank these residents for their generosity as donors in the 2011-2012 Flourtown Fire Company fund drive. According to fire company Vice President, Dean Seltzer, fund drive donations have fallen off dramatically over the past three years as the economy has tanked. To help reverse this trend, the Fire Company initiated a program this year to recognize its most generous residential and business donors.
As part of this program, residential donors giving $75 or more get an LED votive candle with the Fire Company logo, and those giving $150 or more get an even nicer LED candle. Chief George Wilmot stated that the Fire Company decided to go with LED candles as a thank you gift because unattended candles are a leading cause of house fires. The reason for the firefighters neighborhood visits on the 23rd was to deliver the first round of these LED candles.
Fire Company President Tim Ernst emphasized the fact that 100% of the fund drive donations go directly to the Fire Company, unlike certain other fund drive mailers where only a small fraction of the donations actually make it through to the sponsoring organization.
