Vavenby Volunteer Fire Department (VVFD) held an open house on May 3 to celebrate its 45th year of operation and to recruit new members.
It was a beautiful day for the event and there was a good turnout. Chairperson of the board Judy Tobin was hoping for more young people to attend and show an interest in joining. There were two who are possibles. Four new members have joined this year: Brandon and Mari Claire Ruttan, Liam Rorison, and Darcy Werger.
There was a free lunch at the open house. Wendy Pisarczyk barbequed the hamburger patties and hot dogs and Charlotte Cederholm, the only remaining VVFD member from 1976, made all of the salads. The chocolate cake was made by Buy-Low Foods.
Grab bags were handed out to the children. The bags consisted of balloons, bubbles, whistles, rubiks cubes, maize puzzles, stickers, tattoos, bendy straws, colouring pictures drawn by Cederholm's daughter Kerri in 1998, ribbon blowers, and slinkies. The children had a wonderful time playing with each other and their toys and eating cake.
The adults had a trivia quiz to fill out to see how much they knew about their fire hall. Answers were around the hall and people could always go to Cederholm to be pointed in the right direction. Cederholm is the secrectary of the department and a volunteer member.
There was also a draw. Winners were:
1. Wayne Wilson won a mug
2. Don Pickerell won a hold-all bag
3. Lorne Yoeger won a cup and
4. Darcy Werger, Robyn Rexin, Kathy Cederholm, Jessica Greene, and Stan Hlatky won camp chairs.
Volunteer member Jaimie Greene put on some demonstrations for the audience. She did them all with her full gear on. First she carried a load of fire hose up the hall stairs and then, when she got to the top, she pulled up 50 to 60 pounds more.
The second demonstration was the forcible entry exercise where she had to use a sledge hammer. This demonstration was simulating the use of an axe.
Next Greene carried a hose, put it on her shoulder, and aimed the water at the target.
Greene's last demonstration was pulling a 180-pound dummy to a pylon. Jaimie was tired and hot when done because it was a very warm day.
Spectator Isaac Moilliet put on the full gear and attempted all of the demonstrations. He did very well for someone who had never tried them before.