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25 Ways To Celebrate
National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week
National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week is an ideal time to honor your dispatchers with special events and activities. Use the ideas here to create a fun and memorable week.
1. Start each shift with a surprise. Hand out small tokens of appreciation to dispatchers when they arrive at work.
2. Lighten the mood by creating a fun game of Dispatcher Bingo. Set aside time for everyone to play, and give prizes to winners.
3. Have a theme for every day of the week—such as Wacky Wednesday and Throwback Thursday. Encourage dispatchers to dress up according to each day’s theme.
4. Hold a drawing for prizes during every shift of the week. Give winners a small gift, and make sure everyone receives one.
5. Create a public safety-related word search for dispatchers and distribute it during the week. Give out small rewards when the completed word searches are turned in.
6. Take your dispatchers out for lunch. Schedule several lunches during the week so each dispatcher is able to attend one.
7. Set up a photo booth with fun props dispatchers can use to dress up. Allow them time to have fun and snap pictures of themselves.
8. Appeal to everyone’s sweet tooth with an ice cream social.
9. Welcome the beginning of warm weather and channel the spirit of the tropics one day. Encourage dispatchers to wear Hawaiian shirts and sandals, and serve pineapple, mango, and non-alcoholic pina coladas.
10. Take close notice of your dispatchers’ efforts during their special week. Whenever you see a dispatcher going above and beyond the call of duty, surprise him or her with a gift.
11. Treat your dispatchers to a pizza party to let them know how much you “a-pizza-iate” their work.
12. Invite an individual who was helped by a dispatcher to come in and thank all of your dispatchers. Have that person hand out tokens of appreciation when finished speaking.
13. Distribute gifts to dispatchers each day of the week. Add to the excitement by calling them into your office to say “thanks” and receive the items.
14. Allow your dispatchers to decide what recognition items they’ll receive. Offer several choices and let each person pick what he or she wants.
15. Show dispatchers the magnitude of what they accomplish. Create a multiple-choice quiz for them to complete which features statistics and facts about the work they did in the past year.
16. Treat your dispatchers like VIPs. Have police officers volunteer to be valets and park dispatchers’ cars when they arrive at work. Then, literally roll out the red carpet for them and add a long, narrow red carpet at the entrance of your facility.
17. Make up award categories, such as Most Dedicated, Most Helpful, Best Attitude, and more. Then, have dispatchers vote for their coworkers who best exemplify each category. Present a certificate to each dispatcher at the end of the week.
18. Put your creativity and writing skills to the test. Compose a poem for every dispatcher, highlighting his or her special qualities. Read them aloud during the week.
19. Gather dispatchers together for a group picture. Have them wear matching t-shirts. Submit the image for print in a local newspaper.
20. Create a bulletin board display and label it “Dispatchers: Picture the Difference You Make.” Fill it with pictures of dispatchers and newspaper clippings relating to the important work they do.
21. Encourage dispatchers to add physical fitness to their lives to help them stay well and manage stress. Distribute materials about adding exercise to every day and raffle off a membership to a local gym.
22. Set up a mobile café and treat dispatchers to tea and coffee throughout the week.
23. Enlist the help of police, firefighters, and EMTs to cheer on your dispatchers. Ask them to write and perform their special cheers for dispatchers during National Public Safety Telecommunications Week.
24. Spend one day highlighting stress management techniques and remind dispatchers that April is Stress Awareness Month. Give gifts and information that can help them keep stress at bay.
25. Set up a special volunteer activity for dispatchers in recognition of National Volunteer Week, which also occurs in April. Organize a community trash clean-up or a food drive to benefit a local food bank.
