The volunteer fire department and emergency services are a long-standing tradition in the United States that often encompasses families generation after generation. Unfortunately, it is also a tradition in danger of weakening. Many fire departments across the nation today are experiencing more difficulty with recruiting and retaining members than ever before. Fire departments can no longer count on the children of the current members to follow in their parent’s footsteps. Nor can they count on the continuous stream of community people discovering the volunteer fire department on their own and being eager to donate their time and energy to the local volunteer fire department. Adding to the problem, departments cannot rely on members staying active in the volunteer fire service for long periods of time. Ask any volunteer fire chief what their biggest challenges are, more than likely maintaining adequate staffing is at the top of their list. It may be no surprise, then, that the data shows a staggering decline in the number of volunteers in recent years. The National Fire Protection Association reports a 16.23% drop in volunteer firefighters nationwide. The reasons for the decline are varied. A few commonly acknowledged reasons include the lack of time, increased training requirements, and shifting demographics as younger people leave rural communities. Some of the less discussed but equally important obstacles are new recruits feeling that their expectations are not met once they join the fire department, or that the culture of the department creates barriers that cause new recruits to leave. To address the challenges and help the department overcome recruitment and retention obstacles, the San Leon volunteer fire department has launched the “Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment Campaign.” The campaign has two main focuses; raise awareness of the need for fire service volunteers among the public and successfully recruit and retain volunteers. So, the San Leon volunteer fire department is raising awareness of the need of increasing the numbers of volunteers and recruiting volunteers. Every Tuesday and Thursday from 7 PM till 9 PM the department will have recruiters at the station available to answer any questions members of the community might have about becoming a volunteer and to get them started with the application process.