Public Relations, The Importance Of Shameless Self Promotion

Today I had the privilege of being involved in a public relations event for the Police department and for EMS. This was such an amazing event and every time I get to do one of these I remember the importance of shameless self promotion. When it comes to emergency services many people do not understand who we are or what we do. This is OK for the most part, but if we don't promote who we are, no one else will. We as Paramedics, and EMT's need to plug in to public relation events. I find these events also remind me why I got into this career in the first place.

Today I got to partner up with our City Police department as well as with the city public library. My self and one of my best friends and co workers went to a school today to meet with several grade 3 classes. This is not a new program and has been going on for several years. I have only participated a couple of times now, but it is becoming a regular thing when our schedules allow. Kids truly are our future. If we don't demonstrate and talk about what we do we won't have as many people in the future wanting to pursue this career. This would be tragic because, to me, this is one of the best careers that a person can do. Especially a person that has a burning desire to help people. Yes, as I have said in past posts, this job can take a toll on you emotionally and even physically, but it is still a noble and important profession. Public relation events are actually very good for the emotional aspect of what we do. I never laugh more than when I am with a group of kids, answering their questions, and hearing their stories of when they have had dealings with Paramedics and Police.

OK, so a little more about what we did today, because the day was a great time. We were involved in a program today called "It's A Crime, Not To Read." This program promotes reading, and at the same time promotes emergency services. It originally started with Police only but over the last several years EMS has been getting more involved. The fun starts the moment we arrive! The kids are always so excited to meet us, and talk to us, and ask us questions. We are in a stream of endless high fives, fist bumps, and smiling faces.

As we took our seats, and the Public Library representative introduced us the kids sat and were attentive and welcomed us to their classroom. We then listened as the two police officers read a story to the kids. The story was hilarious, and brought to life by these two amazing officers who had a great time reading it. Once their story was done, it was our turn. We were a little nervous following up such a great performance, but we gave it our all. The story we had was also very funny, and the kids received our antics just as warmly as they had received the police officers. Once everything was all said and done the kids were encouraged to ask us a few questions, and then they were allowed to come and speak to us. We spent several minutes at the end of it all signing autographs for the kids, and more high fives, fist bumps and genuine thank yous for coming to read to them! We laughed a lot with the kids, and had an overall amazing day! I encourage my fellow emergency services workers to embrace a few public relation events a year. They are usually easy to find, and help to rekindle that excitement that brought you into this industry in the first place. Who knows, one day, you might be the inspiration for someone to join us in this awesome career!