West Chambers Fire and Rescue holds BBQ fundraiser
BY JOHN BRICE
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
CHAMBERS COUNTY — Every spring in Chambers County locals can look forward to the return of the West Chambers Fire and Rescue Chicken Barbecue fundraiser, which was held on Saturday, April 4, in LaFayette. Supporters of the volunteer firefighting unit paid $12 in advance per ticket that could be redeemed for a plate. Plates were available for pickup at the fire station west of LaFayette as well as Brown’s Service Center downtown.
Vice President Hoyt Still said the fundraiser is important to ensure the station can continue to help the community.
“We cook a thousand chicken halves for a fundraiser twice a year, one in the spring and one in the fall,” he said. “We pre-sell as many tickets as we can, all the firemen get out there and cook the chicken, about 25 or 30 of us. We have a good turnout. [Supporters] come from everywhere. We need all the support we can get. Ever since we have been here, 30 or 40 years, we service a five mile circle [around] the fire station here, most of West Chambers. We go all the way to Waverly.”
Still explained what locals recieve when they purchase a ticket and how the funds support the station.
“It’s half a chicken, slaw, two pieces of bread and a bag of chips,” he said. “[We put] half a chicken in each plate, [and we make around] 2,000 plates. We’ve got a group uptown selling them too right at the courthouse. They are outside of Jimbo Brown’s service station. We make anywhere from $4,000-$6,000 twice a year. [The money goes to] whatever we need at the fire station, the general account, it offsets our equipment purchases and keeps us from having to write grants for things.”
Still said the fundraiser has helped continue the firefighting mission of West Chambers Fire and Rescue from its beginning.
“We didn’t have funds, we got together and tried to make some money,” he said. “We have some dues, but it’s all voluntary. Everybody volunteers their time, nobody gets paid. Most of the fires that we have are brush fires. We went to a smoke alarm this morning. We will run an EMS call every now and then, a medical call. We also run joint with Camp Hill and Tallapoosa County. We will respond to stuff if they need help. We respond to Lee County if there is a structure fire and they page out.”
Firefighter Steve Oliver has been a key member of the team for decades and shared his own experiences helping with West Chambers Fire and Rescue and the BBQ Fundraiser.
“Me and my daddy moved out here in the community about 30 years ago, we do [the fundraiser] twice a year,” he said. “It’s been great. Some people come and go, but they always laugh at us because we are always here. We do it the first weekend of April and the first weekend of November. It takes us all, our wives and kids are in there working on the inside. They pack the plates, we take them in and we sell them out.”
Oliver said bringing community members together was an important aspect of the fundraiser.
“We try to buy local from Renfroe’s or Piggly Wiggly,” he said. “It takes a week leading up to it. We go get everything and have everything out here. Yesterday afternoon, we came and burned the racks, get them ready and pile them up right there. Some people get here around 2 a.m. and put the coals on and light them, the rest of us get here around 3 a.m. We pack the racks and just move them down as we go. We are actually doing pretty good today. The weather worked out for us and we had a lot of help. A lot of us aren’t really family but we are a big family, a community.”
