One of things I enjoy every summer is the opportunity to attend the fundraising events at volunteer fire departments in Door County, Wis. Not only is the food tasty and it supports a worthy cause, but I enjoy watching the "mutual aid," as local fire departments work together to help with an event.
For the past dozen years, I’ve attended the annual Baileys Harbor Fire Department pancake breakfast on the Fourth of July, which precedes the parade. The paid on-call/volunteer department has 32 active members, but that number increases with help from surrounding departments for the pancake breakfast.
Tables cover the apparatus bay and front apron as the line for pancakes, sausages and coffee starts early and winds down the street. I’m entertained by the tourists in the block-long line waiting to have pancakes at the fire department, and by the kids wandering around the fire trucks parked outside.
The main attraction inside the station is the eight-foot long griddle with the sliding dispenser of batter. After the chef slides the tray down the griddle, dispensing perfect circles of batter, he turns over the pancakes and the fun begins. The chef flips finished pancakes over the griddle to paper plates eagerly extended by participants ready to catch their breakfast.
At the end of the summer, over Labor Day weekend, the Sister Bay/Liberty Grove Fire Department, with 40-plus members, hosts their pancake breakfast (with the same flipping chef as above) and a barbecue during the Marina Fest in Sister Bay. The timing of the fest is perfect for the arrival of fresh, local corn on the cob to go with the brats and burgers.
This month, I attended a barbecue to honor the retirement of Fire Chief Niles Weborg after 56 years, 34 years as fire chief, with the Ephraim Fire Department. More than 200 people—mostly volunteer firefighters—turned out to congratulate and thank the chief for his dedication and commitment.
Weborg personifies what a volunteer fire chief used to be. Weborg was 19 years old when he joined Ephraim Fire Department and married the fire chief’s daughter. He proudly showed me the first fire truck purchased for the department, a 1934 Ford pumper that now resides in the department’s museum (formerly the original fire station) and is still used in parades. Weborg saw many changes in his 34 years as fire chief, particularly with technology.
As with most volunteer departments, firefighting runs in the family. Weborg’s son, William “Bill” Weborg, followed in his father’s footsteps and became assistant fire chief until his line-of-duty death in 2004. Chief Weborg’s grandson, Scott, Bill’s son, is currently a volunteer firefighter in Ephraim.
Attending these events with volunteer fire departments keeps me grounded and takes me back to when my dad and brothers volunteered with the Lisle Fire Department, outside Chicago, before it became a career department. The fire department made our small town even smaller, and created a unique camaraderie of dedicated individuals that responded when called to help others. Like a family, there were squabbles about who got to the fire truck first, but when the pagers went off, everyone climbed onboard.
With all the news of crazy politicians, heartbreaking unrest and mislabeled heroes, it is heartwarming to know that volunteerism and commitment to communities still survives in pockets of America.
