Pro bono stencils- backfire

[Gene Uselman]

We do a fair amount of pro bono work for the local police and fire departments, if there is a substantial cost for materials we ask them to pay for the materials only. We have done fire dept crew engravings which are in each vehicle to assure that the fire chief on site knows that all of his men are accounted for [and not left in a burning building] and the crew chief for each vehicle can account for his people. That was a couple hundred dollars for the materials and they were very appreciative of the work produced.

This time it was the local police and sheriff wanting stencils so that they could paint on the roadway. We provided .060 styrene stencils and asked them to not share where they got them so as to not having a bunch of depts wanting them. That did not work out [for us] we now have a lot of neighboring depts. wanting the same thing. This was the first round

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Police stencils.jpg

and withing a week we had three more depts

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Police2.JPG

They are willing to pay for them but we are busy making money and I am retired from making things for anyone but me and my people. We may have to make a website to sell them profitably. They are not very good at overspray... but they love them. Gene

BTW- that tall blond kid is not me- he actually worked for me 37 years ago tho.