Geneva Fire Dept. fundraiser a success

In an effort to raise money for a new fire truck, the Geneva Fire Department held a pancake breakfast at the community center on Sunday morning, Sept. 21. Volunteers from the fire department and Zion Lutheran Church were on hand to make pancakes and keep things running smoothly. They had 225 people come through the line to support local fire.

Mayor Steven Bailey, who has been in service to the fire department for an amazing 42 years, was manning the ticket table in the front by the entrance. Next to him was Bethany Boswell. Said Mayor Bailey, “Today has been a wonderful turnout; we’ve already seen record numbers, and it’s been great.” Fire Chief Curt Boswell was busy carrying plates for pancake refills or clearing tables and wiping them down to make way for hungry new breakfast seekers. Said Boswell, “The butter was donated from Hope Creamery in Hope, MN. The eggs are from Jesse’s Joint. We got the pancake batter from Lerberg’s in Ellendale and got a pretty good deal on milk and juice. Sausages are from Dean’s Smoke Shack.”

 

Outside the backdoor enjoying a nice cool 69 degrees from Zion Lutheran Church, both Mike Hartle and Dennis Woodfill were busy flipping pancakes. When asked if this was their first time volunteering, they replied, “No, we’ve been doing this every year and every time they ask us to.” They looked at each other for a moment and said, “Yeah, I’d say it’s been ten plus years, maybe a little more than that, but at least ten.” Not far from them was another group of firemen who were cooking sausages and scrambled eggs on a propane griddle. There was the sound of sizzling as another batch of eggs were mixed and poured out, followed by the scraping of metal spatulas.

 

Inside, moving through the line were husband and wife Sherry and Todd Utpadel, “We’re here to show our support for the fire department; we can’t live without them.”

 

Mayor Bailey also wanted to point out that on the front ticket table were two giant boxes of chocolate chip, monster and oatmeal and raisin cookies, “Both boxes of cookies were graciously donated to us by Julia Alvarado, owner/baker of Sprouting Flour Bakery. She’s a local girl doing her best and we like calling attention to growing/’sprouting’ businesses in town.”