9-1-1 Dispatcher Car

If you had the opportunity to raise the visibility of your profession through unconventional means, would you take it? This spring APCO International Florida Executive Council Representative Debbie Gailbreath is participating in a contest to do just by designing a 9-1-1 Dispatcher Car for NASCAR.

For the third year in a row, Toyota has conducted its Sponsafy Your Own Car contest (Sponsifier 3), in which participants select their drivers and customize the paint job of a Camry. Fans then vote for their favorite design. The grand prize: The design will be applied to a Toyota NASCAR Sprint Cup car.

Gailbreath’s car sports “9-1-1 Dispatchers” in bold colors and “EMS,” “Fire” and “Police” painted above the back tires. Brightly colored stars accent the lettering. (View all 360 degrees of the car.) 

The voting has closed, and the 9-1-1 Dispatchers Car is amoung the Top 10 designs, with a real shot at winning. The grand prize will be announced on May 20.

On May 1, APCO President Bill Carrow was interviewed for a morning pre-NASCAR radio show on the LTN Radio Network by host Todd Behling. Carrow really focused on the meaning of the car to public safety telecommunicators and APCO International — the unsung heroes behind the consoles.

Although the contest is open to everyone and allows people to be as silly as they want to, Behling noted that the cars with the most serious subject matters currently had the most votes.

Carrow said, “The ones that made it to the Top 10 are the more serious [cars]. They represent such entities as 9-1-1 dispatchers and shelters and different things. Naturally we are quite biased. We want ours to win.”

Regarding the importance of the design, Carrow emphasized 9-1-1’s public visibility. “So many people don’t really understand what 9-1-1 dispatchers do,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that for them the one time in their life that they may have to rely on 9-1-1 in their community, they really don’t realize the importance those employees play behind the scenes. They truly are behind-the-scenes heroes.”

He continued, “Everybody is used to seeing fire trucks and ambulances on scene, but they really do forget what makes those systems go into effect and what makes that equipment roll, and it is the 9-1-1 telecommunicators that are behind the scene. … We are quite proud of this design.”