November 17, 2016

Dear Plainfield Friends,

Your generosity each year makes it possible for the Plainfield Volunteer Firefighters Association to support the town’s emergency services in many ways. In the last year, your donations purchased and outfitted a rescue trailer. This year, we are writing to ask for your help in purchasing vehicle stabilization tools to enable rescuers to respond effectively to motor vehicle accidents.

As the number of firefighters and EMTs continues to drop in Plainfield and surrounding towns, the Plainfield Fire-EMS Department’s officers are looking for ways to provide vital rescue services with fewer responders. When the pager goes off for a motor vehicle accident, your town volunteers respond. Often in challenging of environmental conditions—icy rain, heavy snows, frigid cold—these incidents present a hazardous working environment. Rescuers must provide aid to injured people within and around damaged and unstable vehicles that may shift or slide at any time. The accident begins when the cars collide or leave the road. To ensure that the accident doesn’t continue after the rescuers arrive, it is essential to stabilize vehicles and keep responders safe while they assist injured patients.

Here is how you can help. With fewer firefighters available to respond, stabilization rescue tools that can be easily transported and deployed by personnel can help fill the gap. We have identified two simple but effective tools that will allow rescuers to work more efficiently and safely at these dangerous scenes. The PowerHawk Auto Crib-It AC-17 stabilization tool provides quick support beneath a vehicle’s frame, preventing movement while patients inside are being cared for or extricated. The Paratech Highway Vehicle Stabilization Kit attaches to tilted or flipped vehicles and prevents them from shifting and further endangering patients or rescuers. Both tools can be easily deployed by just one or two firefighters and are built of advanced materials strong enough to support SUVs and trucks. The $8,000 combined cost of the tools is beyond the reach of the Plainfield Fire-EMS Department’s annual budget.

Plainfield’s volunteer firefighters need your help to purchase these stabilization rescue tools to help them save lives in our town. Your neighbors who volunteer as firefighters and EMTs donate hundreds of hours of their time responding to calls, completing training, and working on equipment. With your help, the Association hopes to be able provide the money for these tools. Can we count on you for your help?

We hope you will support our Annual Fund Drive through a tax-deductible donation. Checks save credit card processing fees and can be made out to the PVFA and mailed to: 

PVFA
c/o Andy Stevens, Treasurer
815 West Main Street
Plainfield, MA 01070

You can also make a donation by credit card. Please consider adding a bit extra to cover credit card fees we must pay.

PVFA, supporting Plainfield’s volunteer firefighters and EMTs

We are a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions. Our IRS EIN is 04-3283889.