Mailer that purports to help Columbia Falls Fire Department doesn't help at all, chief says

A fundraising mailer claiming to help the Columbia Falls Fire Department is bogus, Fire Chief Rick Hagen is warning residents.

The mailer, sent out by the Volunteer Firefighter Alliance, asks for a contribution to the Alliance in bold print, but if one reads the fine print, none of the funding goes to the Columbia Falls Fire Department.

In fact, most of it goes directly toward fundraising — about 75 percent.

The remaining goes to “public education in conjunction with fundraising appeals,” the fine print of the mailer states.

In other words, 100 percent is tied to the fundraising itself.

“It’s bogus. It does nothing to help Columbia Falls area volunteer firefighters,” Hagen said.

The Columbia Falls Volunteer Fire Department does one mailing asking for donations a year. It’s done in the fall, Hagen said, and is printed on official letterhead and has the fire department’s real Columbia Falls address.

The Alliance is out of Topeka, Kansas, according its mailer.

Alan Bohms, executive director of the Alliance, defended the non-profit’s tactics in a telephone interview. While the mailer comes from Topeka, he called from Clearwater, Florida.

He said the mailer makes no claims that it will help local fire departments, only that it was embarking on a national recruiting effort. It also claims to be building a list of potential volunteers that it will forward to local departments.

But Hagen said he’s never had any contact from the Alliance.

“Our goal is to not upset local fire chiefs,” Bohms claimed.

Bohms claimed the Alliance only sent out about 40 mailers in Montana.

Hagen learned of the mailer after a family member of a Columbia Falls firefighter showed him the document. She did not send the Alliance any money.