Of the things that Sinek talked about a few stood out. The connection that he made to my topic happened when he said “if you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money, but if they believe what you believe,they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears.” This resonates with my topic and others because if someone really believes in what you are doing then they will also be doing it. In the fire service and other volunteer organisations people don’t just do it, they do it because something in them tells them that it is the right thing to do. This connects to what Sinek said about how people relate to the why more so than the what or how. Another thing that he says is “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it, and what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe.” In volunteer organisations the result is what people want but people don’t volunteer simply to achieve a goal.

Some of the things that I found online surrounding the topic of volunteerism and its lack typically centered on the fire service. These articles talked about lack of volunteers in a society that requires more. They mentioned a couple of facts such as the aging population of volunteer firefighters and the increased call volume in the past decade. The articles also talked about how places have been combating this crisis. The state of New York has turned to women and has been more active in trying to get them to join. Other places have turned to efforts such as paying volunteers but the problem still exists.

There are many reasons to volunteer, whether it be by joining a fire department or any other volunteer organisation. We do it because we know that we can create a better and safer place for our communities. We dedicate ourselves to our cause and we do it because we are needed and because people count on us. People rely on volunteers to do many things with the biggest volunteer organisations being fire, ems, and organisations such as united way. We show what we do by training, responding, and doing everything we can do for our organisation.  What we do depends on where we volunteer and what services we provide. In the fire service we put out fires, cut apart cars, search and rescue, and many other things if we are needed. Other organisations do things like plant trees, paint fences and hand out food. We volunteer because our communities need us to. To frame it as Sinek framed his pitch, We do that by training, having meetings, and being ready whenever we are needed. The things we do are numerous and important.

TEDTalks: Simon Sinek–How Great Leaders Inspire Action. TED, 2010.

Post, Paul. “In Need of More Volunteers, Fire Departments Are Turning to Women.” New York Times n.d.: n. pag. Print.

Warren, Sabian. “Fire Departments Struggle to Attract Volunteers.” Citizen times n.d.: n. pag. Print.