Earlier this month, volunteer fire departments across New York state took part in a unified recruitment effort, aimed at increasing ranks and attracting younger volunteers.

Hosted by the Firemen’s Association of the State of New York, the Recruit NY effort was deemed a success.

I reported on the recruitment and retention issues that are, according to most fire departments, putting volunteer ranks at risk. You can listen to — or read — the story here.

In essence, these recruitment issues boil down to two problems.

For starters, volunteerism is down at fire departments across New York. And make no mistake about it, this is not an Adirondack problem or even a North Country problem. Essentially, if your local fire department relies on volunteers, then your local fire department needs to boost its numbers (of course, some departments are doing just fine). And even if your department is doing well, most fire and rescue officials will tell you that having too many volunteers is rarely a bad thing.

The second issue, which some officials say is the more pressing matter, is the average age of volunteers. It’s going up. Here in the North Country, departments are desperately seeking younger volunteers.

Rusty Hall, chief of the Keene Valley Volunteer Fire Department, told me earlier this month that the department doesn’t have a volunteer from the local school district. In past years, that’s been a constant, Hall says.

So that leaves me asking some questions: why is volunteerism down? and why is it getting harder and harder to attract young volunteers?

The general response that I received when talking to fire chiefs and volunteers was that signing up to volunteer is a major time commitment — a commitment that men and women with families and bills to pay often can’t afford to make.

Additionally, the state requires a lot of training hours. And here in northern New York, those training sessions don’t always happen in the same community where volunteers live.

I will note that when I asked one young volunteer — Keegan Muldowney, 21, of Saranac Lake — about hefty training requirements, his response was, “Too much training is never a bad thing.”

That’s pretty hard to disagree with.

Keegan also had some interesting insights when I asked him about the challenges facing young volunteers. I’ve heard in some discussions that younger Americans are less likely to give back to their communities.

Keegan disagreed.

“They’re either at school or at work,” he said. “The availability is tough, because you have an unstable life when you’re young these days. Unless you get right out of college with a stable career, you don’t have a stable income and a stable schedule where you can really commit to yourself and commit to your department that you’re going to be there.”

So there are some obvious challenges faced by fire departments across the state. And it’s hard to expect one department to help young volunteers with pressing matters like college loan payments, supporting a family, or paying the rent.

Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward offered a few ideas that lawmakers could put forth — things like paying for travel to training, scholarships for volunteers to attend local colleges, etc. But with Albany cutting back, it’s also tough to imagine that the state can solve the problem.

So what do you think? What’s keeping young recruits from signing up? And how do we fix the problem? Your comments are welcome.

Photo: Raquette Lake Volunteer Fire Department, courtesy Galen R Frysinger.