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Beacon Correspondent
As the crowd trickled in and bingo cards handed out the excitement grew for the big ticket drawing. Hundreds attended the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department Fundraiser at the Fire Hall in Fortuna. With all 200 tickets sold and over 380 guests served the event was deemed a success.
Jan. 1 marked a change for the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department as they hired their first paid Chief, Lon Winburn. The Department sites the change to be brought on by the State and County regulations which created a paperwork overload. Chief Winburn is employed by the Fortuna Fire Protection District and is a volunteer with the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department.
In 2009 the FFD went out on over 500 alarm and service calls ranging from medical emergencies to burn barrels. There are over 2,500 training hours put in by the Department with another 2500 in training through HROP, CR, online courses, Cal Fire, arson training, and local courses. The department is made up of 5 Company's which are described as 3 downtown, 1 in Campton Heights, and 1 in Hydesville.
The Ladies Auxiliary is a group that provides assistance to the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department when requested. It may be a simple as a meal provided or as complex as assistance in creating a large scale fundraiser. The Auxiliary assists families who have been affected by fire in providing a food card, clothing, and bridging the local services that are available to help them recover from the tragedy.
The last event of this nature was held in 2004 for their 100th anniversary and raised about $17,000. Ken Lytle stated prior to the event, “in this economy we are just happy to have sold all the tickets and expect to raise less than 2004, but it is looking good.”
Fire Department members, Ladies Auxiliary, local businesses, and local citizens joined together to support and raise money for the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department and Ladies Auxiliary. Guests who attended the event held at the Fortuna Fire Hall enjoyed a no host full bar, appetizers of fresh vegetables and pita chips served with a spicy artichoke dip, Dutch auction, silent auction, Bingo, dinner, and big ticket draw.
The auctions contained items ranging from Fortuna Rodeo his and her hats to dinner at Curly's with a night's stay at the local Holiday Inn. With over a 100 items to choose from the bidding contained some real excitement on paper. One of the hot ticket items was a beautifully flame painted antique fire extinguisher donated by Rob and Christina Boone. Several fire department members bid on photograph of local Engine 7415 donated by Larry and Liz Hall. Ferndale Jewelers donated a framed copper fire truck which stole the interest of many who attended.
Dinner started with a delightful salad of lettuce, green onions, shrimp, black olives, celery, Spanish olives, and a lite dressing served with dinner rolls and butter. As guests dined on their salads members of the Fire Department traveled the room selling accent bottles of wine. As the main course was served many words of praise could be heard regarding the flavor of the meat and portion sizes. Dennis Hazelton expressed, “I love the baked potato and meat, which is so good I can't define if it was roasted or cooked over a fire.” The full plate displayed a large slice of New York strip, full size twice baked potato topped with oven roasted cheese, and green bean almandine. As if the guests we not full enough trays of brownies served with ice cream made their rounds and were enjoyed by many.
Several people who attended the 2010 fundraiser also attended the 100th anniversary event in 2004. Nancy Victorine said, “Dinner is always great and the turn out was good. The support from the community on this coast is fabulous!”
During dinner the auctions were closed and winning bidders announced. Then drawing began for the bingo cards and final ticket draw of $3,500. With only 200 hundred tickets sold for the event the odds of coming home with one of the 50 cash prizes was pretty good and could be felt by the over 380 attendees. With numbers 1 through 200 being drawn it was a double chance of winning since bingo cards could be played for numbers 1 through 75 for one of 6 cash bingos. As the numbers dwindled and the final 10 were revealed they gathered at front and waited for the final big winner. Ironically the $3,500 winner was Fire Chief from Humboldt 1 Cutten area, Ken Woods, who did not attend the night's festivities but purchased tickets in support of the worthy fundraiser.
Ricky Rudd was the evenings MC for the event and sited Tom Daetwiler for his efforts in selling over half of the 200 tickets and the community for donating, buying tickets, and then coming to the event and bidding on items in the auctions. Rudd praised, “The community is amazing and they supported us and then came and gave some more. This event is the product of a lot of hard work and dedication to this community. We live in a great place,” he said.
The FFD is now in the planning stages of restoring their antique fire equipment and purchasing non budgeted items need for the Fire Hall which serves the local community. Scholarship money was also forwarded to the Ladies Auxiliary to support the local youth in the upcoming school year. The Ladies Auxiliary is going through its' own changes and will be establishing a full board and a new set of by laws in the coming months.
FFD plans to have another big ticket draw fundraising event in the year 2014 for their 110th anniversary. You will be able to find the members of the Fortuna Volunteer Fire Department assisting with traffic during the upcoming Fortuna Rodeo, working the Penny Scramble, and doing the big deep pit barbecue among many other tasks.
photo by Heather Nyberg-Schlotzhauer.
Banquet style seating provided open conversations and shared laughter at the fortuna Volunteer Fire Department Fundraiser.
