Firefighting not the only duty of Connoquenessing volunteers
CONNOQUENESSING — Along with the hundreds to thousands of hours volunteer fire fighters spend in training and at emergency scenes are hundreds of hours making sure they can get to those trainings and scenes with the necessary gear.
The Connoquenessing Volunteer Fire Company is just one volunteer squad in Butler County where its members take on fundraising themselves. On Saturday, Oct. 4, many of its firefighters, along with its social members, strapped on aprons instead of fireproof jackets to cook up a breakfast to raise money for the company.
Matt McConnell, president and deputy chief of Connoquenessing Volunteer Fire Company, said the initiative is the result of people in the borough and Connoquenessing Township asking the department for an event like the breakfast. When members of the company started doing the breakfasts two years ago, the people who asked the company didn’t just sit back and relax either.
“That’s my favorite part about this, is people just come here to volunteer,” McConnell said.
By 8:30 a.m. Saturday, dozens of people had already been served a breakfast, mainly consisting of pancakes and sides like bacon, eggs, sausage and coffee.
Michelle Beck, a social member of the fire company and a member of its ways and means committee, emphasized that although people had to get to the fire station to prepare as early as 5 a.m., no one grumbled about the task. Beck also said several organizations donated supplies for the breakfast, and other community groups came to help out throughout the day. The breakfast was scheduled to end at 1 p.m., but the helpers would probably not clear the hall until at least 3 p.m., according to Beck.
She also said many non-members of the fire station got involved in this year’s and previous year’s pancake breakfasts, because they recognize its importance.
“We help raise funds for for everyday things,” Beck said. “It helps buy equipment. One year we used money on equipment for the junior firefighters; it helps pay the electric bill; pay the cable bill.”
But there is more the company is fundraising for now than just everyday things. The fire company is in the midst of building a new fire station on Route 68, which is a
The plans for the building were on display at the breakfast, and McConnell was on hand to explain the blueprints to anyone with questions.
“It will be crown jewel of Connoquenessing,” McConnell said of the coming fire station.
