Published: October 11, 2008 01:39 am            

BBQ benefit to aid VFD

ELMWOOD — Barbecue and catfish can be worth their weight in gold for volunteer fire departments and Elmwood VFD is no exception.

Elmwood VFD will hold its annual barbecue dinner fundraiser from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Nov. 8 at its main fire station on FM 315 in Elmwood.

For $8 a plate, patrons receive barbecued brisket, sausage, potato salad, beans, all the trimmings, desserts and drinks, with carryout plates available.

In return, the small fire department gets money to purchase equipment.

This year, the department plans to use the money raised by the barbecue and its associated barbecue pit giveaway and silent auction on dinners donated by local restaurants to purchase self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) to replace the old equipment currently being used.

“For the gas and everything, it cost $41,000 to keep the department afloat last year,” Elmwood VFD Chief Forrest Perkins said. “The county gives us some money but if it wasn’t for the community, we wouldn’t keep afloat.”

Government grants, often used to purchase equipment and trucks, spread only so far.

The department recently learned it had been rejected for a grant which would have provided 94 percent of the $250,000 necessary to purchase a new combination pumper and tanker truck, Perkins said.

Residents in the community had agreed to donate most of the rest, he said.

“Now we’ll have to buy a secondhand one somewhere,” Perkins said. “The one we have is not usable. The big truck we have can’t get down in some of the places we have to go.”

Elmwood has three brush trucks — two pickups equipped with 300 gallon tanks, hoses and equipment and a third fitted with a 400 gallon tank. It also has a 3,200 gallon tanker which was donated by Alvin Fire Department to the Forest Service with the understanding that it would be given to the Elmwood VFD.

To increase public awareness of the department, Elmwood firefighters will have a booth at the Fall-Oktoberfest in downtown Palestine on Oct. 25, where they’ll give away safety-themed coloring books, stickers and balloons to children and sell tickets for the barbecue pit drawing. Tickets will be $3 each or two for $5.

For more information, call Perkins at 903-549-3846.

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Beth Foley may be contacted via e-mail at bfoley@palestineherald.com

        

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