No, these photos of hot firefighters holding cute animals are not just for the sake of showing muscles and handsome guys. They actually have a social cause: supporting children’s charities and animal shelters in Australia.
Since 1993, the firefighters from Australia’s Urban, Rural, Aviation, Armed Forces and Corporate fire-fighting services have delighted the world with one of the most iconic calendars ever.
Over the years, the Australian Firefighters Calendar has donated over $2.8 million dollars to several charities, and this year they are giving the world not just one calendar, but four of them: dogs, cats, animals, and the “hot guys” edition.
David Rogers, director of the Australian Firefighters Calendar, explains in an interview that the participant firefighters are always very eager to be part of the experience. “They also visit children’s hospitals around Australia to talk to the kids. It’s hard to keep them out of the calendar.”
The selection is the difficult part of the process. For the 2019 calendar, there were 150 interested in being part of the photoshoot, but only 50 of them were chosen. And from those 50, just 38 were the lucky ones to appear in one of the four calendars available. These firefighters were selected by a 10-women panel of different ages. “It takes hours of sorting through photo after photo,” says Rogers.
This year, the Australian Firefighters have an open call to all the firefighters in the world who want to join the movement, so they can be featured in an international edition of the calendar. “It’s going to be hard to pick just 11 from around the world. What firefighter doesn’t want to come to Australia and take part in the biggest photoshoot in the world! They will be photographed with exotic animals and experience the incredible Gold Coast,” Rogers explains.
But besides appearing in one of the most popular calendars, Aussie animal shelters will benefit from the calendar sales. This year, the firefighters are expecting to earn around $200,000 dollars.
The big question is how these men deal with the “hot firefighter” stereotype, to which Rogers answers: “They absolutely love it! The media attention around the photoshoot and when the calendar is launched is a very busy but fun time for them. The lucky firefighters that have been selected enjoy a lot of media attention for the entire year.”
Behind all of these incredible photos of good-looking men holding cute animals, there are lots of experiences as animals are so unpredictable. For example, when doing the photoshoot with ducklings, they had a tall cupboard where they wanted the animals to be next to one of the firefighters, but the ducklings keep trying to jump off the cupboard so the production team had to be underneath them with pillows to catch them.
For Rogers, it’s great that people all over the world are interested in what they do. Just last year, they had a social media reach of 2.8 million people. So, if you want to have an inspiring calendar and also support a good cause, you should totally get the Australian Firefighters Calendar. And if you are a firefighter who has what it takes to be in this calendar, don’t hesitate to participate and travel to Australia!
Learn more about the Australian Firefighters Calendar.
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