The Derby Fire Department hosted its third annual spaghetti fundraiser, drawing a crowd of familiar and new faces for a warm meal and a shared cause. The event, held around the same time each year, has quickly become a cherished tradition in the growing Richmond County community.
ELLERBE — The Derby Fire Department hosted its third annual spaghetti fundraiser, drawing a crowd of familiar and new faces for a warm meal and a shared cause. The event, held around the same time each year, has quickly become a cherished tradition in the growing Richmond County community.
“We started this spaghetti fundraiser three years ago. We always do it around the same time of year. We started this three years ago when I joined the fire department and realized that we needed to start having some public relations,” said Connie Green, secretary and event coordinator at Derby Fire Department.
Green originally pitched the idea to the board, and its popularity has only grown.
“I presented it to the board and David thought it was a good idea. All of them have been very successful, but we’re seeing the community growing by leaps and bounds and this is not only a fundraiser for us to raise money, but a way for us to meet the community and meet the new members that are coming to our community,” said Green.
Building relationships with residents is at the heart of the fundraiser’s mission.
“It’s very important to me personally as well as the fire department to let our faces be known and just be here for the community,” Green said.
Derby Fire Department Chief David Poland echoed that sense of purpose.
“We’re having a ball. We do this more for the community. Like Connie said, to bring them in and socialize a little bit and keep up the PR and raise money for our department as well,” said Poland.
With rising costs, the department depends on events like this one to sustain operations.
“It’s so important with the raising prices of everything. It’s hard to keep going if you’re not making money, so we rely strongly on donations, fundraisers, support from the community — so we have to do things like this and when we started three years ago, everybody loved it so much, they just wanted to continue it. So now I believe the community really looks forward to having this every year around the same time of the year,” said Green.
Looking ahead, the department plans to host additional events to connect with residents beyond emergency calls.
“We’re trying to bring more to the community, more type of events with the fire department that way they can meet us, they can see us and not just see us when we’re coming for an emergency, but they see us on a personal level and get to know all of the firefighters on the department on a personal level as well,” Green said.
Chief Poland shared that a recruitment event is in the works to help boost volunteer numbers.
“In the near future, we’re going to do a couple of special events to try to recruit new members. The state requires us to have a minimum of 15 active members and when I say active members, they will be required to have 36 hours of training per year.”
Green added that the summer recruitment event will feature food and fellowship.
“We’re going to be serving hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and drinks and just trying to bring the community and get some more volunteers,” she said. Volunteers must be at least 16 years old to start as a junior firefighter.
The fire department also welcomes community members to attend its regular meetings, held on the first and third Monday of each month at 7 p.m., as a way to learn more and get involved.
Reach Ana Corral at [email protected]