Fireman's Ball sees success

PLAINS – Men and women in red shirts and matching red hats navigated their way through the winding aisles between tables to serve food to the jovial crowd. Friends, family and neighbors dined together to enjoy good food, good company and donate to a good cause.

The annual Fireman’s Ball fundraiser put on by the Plains Volunteer Fire Department took place Saturday night at the VFW. The event hall was packed left to right of people eager and ready to buy raffle tickets and bid at auction to help raise money for the firemen.

Social hour began at 5 p.m. and dinner was served by members of the volunteer fire department an hour later. They served chicken, potatoes, rolls, salad and fruit pie topped with whipped cream.

After the meal was over, the live auction began. The auctioneer was Gene Johnson and he travels the country for his trade. He was full of energy and humor, often making the crowd laugh out loud in between bids while maintaining his salesmanship.

When a dozen roses were up for bid, he asked if any of the men were in trouble with their woman, or in the metaphorical dog house. He said a dozen roses were sure to fix that. Sure enough, the roses were sold to a gentleman for $70.

Johnson sold a gift certificate to spay or neuter a pet and a rifle red eye scope to the highest bidders with just as much humor.

For the spay or neuter gift certificate he amused the audience by specifying that it only applied to cats and dogs. He poked fun at the rifle scope as well.

“This here is a red dot scope for those of you that shoot a lot of red dots,” Johnson said.

There were many large items up for bid at this year’s live auction. There was a weed eater, a pellet-fuel grill valued at $500 and a gift certificate for lodging and dining at Quinn’s for four days valued at $400. But the top item of the night was the retired, fully functional fire truck.

When selling this item, Johnson continued to utilize his humor and flare.

“I should get this for my wife to go shopping in. She will get done a lot quicker,” he said. “If you empty it out, you could use it for an RV. You could take it camping and you will always get a parking spot.”

The fire truck sold for almost $4,000 which Fire Chief Joe Sheppard was very pleased about. He said that will pay for two new fire suits for the department.

Johnson’s regular reminders that the money was going towards a good cause kept the bids coming in until all the auction items were gone.

“Come on folks, you do not want the hose to be two feet short when your house catches fire,” he said. “If the firemen do not have enough hose, it is going to be your fault.”

Thanks to the auctioneer, donators and bidders, the auction was a great success. Sheppard was pleased with the event as a whole.

“We had good donations this year and we have had a really good turnout. We ran out of food even,” Sheppard said. “This is probably one of the best ones we have had.”

According to Sheppard, there were some scheduling issues last year but this year the fire department made sure there were no conflicts with other events.

The fundraiser was a great success thanks to the careful planning, good turnout and local generosity. The Volunteer Fire Department will be able to purchase new equipment needed to keep Plains safe.

“We love you guys, we appreciate you guys - we just do not want to do business with you,” Johnson said.