Sunshine Fire Protection District 2023 Fundraiser

Sunshine Fire Protection District Fundraiser

As a resident or property owner in the Sunshine Community, the Sunshine Fire Protection District, our all-volunteer fire department, is your “First Responder” if an emergency response is needed. These responses can consist of but are not limited to house fires, wildfires, medical emergencies, hazmat, or car/cycling accidents. This dedicated organization of volunteers has been faithfully serving the Sunshine community since 1969, in large part thanks to the generosity and support of our community members.

Your SFPD consists of 30 volunteer firefighters who are all wildland fire certified and/or structure certified and medically trained. Our generous volunteers are committed to this great community and have not hesitated to run calls during the COVID-19 pandemic. They sincerely care about your health and safety and are committed to responding to the community day or night. Regardless of the need, they are always first on the scene. They continuously train throughout the year and are ready to serve Sunshine residents, neighboring districts, and the general public.

The Sunshine Fire Protection District is a government-funded entity, with a budget determined by a property tax levy voted and approved by Boulder County - and Sunshine residents. The current year’s budget from tax revenues is $168,500 and covers most of our costs for the district that include the purchase and maintenance of firefighting apparatus, our two fire stations and other operational costs. We are still a 100% volunteer district.

But our budgets are heavily constrained, in part because we must put aside a significant portion each year into our Capital Reserves account that accrues to purchase or replace our aging equipment. That reserved set-aside is $35,500 for 2023. That leaves a gap for the funds needed to buy equipment that can make a real difference to our volunteers during a call.

One source of revenue we have for purchasing much-needed supplies and equipment are generous donations from Sunshine residents. We budgeted for $15,000 in donations in 2023 but so far have raised less than $4,000.

Those budgeted funds have helped the department purchase many items that would not be accessible without donations. For example, $3,400 of unbudgeted dollars were needed in 2022 to purchase fire hoses for our new 4505 engine. In 2023 we have already purchased a number of items that greatly improve the effectiveness of our firefighting team. These included a chainsaw for engine 4505, thermal imaging cameras, and gas monitors totaling $6,300. But that leaves many more items that are still needed to be funded in part by Sunshine donations - including AED’s for each vehicle, cabin air filtration systems so firefighters get clean air inside the vehicle during a wildfire, 800 mhz handheld radios, a small portable generator, fire blankets for vehicle fires, tire chains for the new engine 4545 and bunker/structure gear totaling over $50,000. Many of those items will need to wait to be purchased in future years and future budgets, despite their immediate need by the department.

In short, we need our Sunshine community to help us reach our donations goal of $25,000 in 2023. You can help make sure that the department has the funds needed to support important equipment as soon as possible this year. And with our new Sunshine Firefighters Foundation non-profit, we now have a 501-3c designation, making many donations eligible for company matching funds, in addition to qualifying for income tax deductions. Please check with your employer to see if your personal donations might be doubled with a matching donation.

If you have the capacity, please give to our GoFundMe campaign: https://www.gofundme.com/f/sunshine-FPD-2023. If you prefer to give by check, you can mail or drop one off at Station 1 mailbox Sunshine FPD, 311 County Road 83 Boulder, CO 80302. Please provide a contact email address and/or phone number with your donation.

NOTE: gofundme adds a 15% “Tip” for the gofundme organization on every donation. If you are not interested in this extra charge, just under the donation amount, change the tip amount to 0% by moving the green slider from 15% to the left to 0%.

Thank you for your continued support of the SFPD Fire Department!

Regards,

SFPD Fundraising Committee