TRR photo by Chris Conroy Members of the Smallwood Mongaup Valley Volunteer Fire Department opened up their hose to help guests at their annual open house beat the heat on July 6. (Click for larger image)

Serving the community

By CHRIS CONROY

SMALLWOOD, NY — Independence Day weekend means two things in Smallwood: that the United States is another year older and that there’ll be free hotdogs on Sunday thanks to the local fire department.

This year marked the second year that the Smallwood Mongaup Valley Volunteer Fire Department coupled its annual open house event with a 5K run/walk. The combination has proved to be very successful.

“We had a great race,” said Tammy Ieradi, the coordinator of the race. Starting at 9:00 a.m., the 150 race participants took to the streets of Smallwood in a winding 5K course. When all was done, Ian Parnett of Swan Lake ranked first among the runners with a time of 17:02. Smallwood’s Bob Barrett took first place in the walker category, completing the course in 29:19. Lindsay Dollard, also of Smallwood, rolled across the finish line competing as the only wheelchair-bound participant. Her time was 1:17:34.

The money collected from the race will go to support fire company activities and services.

Fundraising is a big part of any volunteer organization’s workload and for the Smallwood fire company, it’s becoming almost second nature. Besides the annual open house, which has always been a major source of funds and fun, the department has taken to barbecuing chickens every Sunday at Collins Field in Mongaup Valley. Every week, members say, the barbecue sells well.

Aside from buying new equipment and covering other necessary costs that are beyond the scope of funds obtained from grants and other sources, some of the money raised is being put into a special fund to complete the restoration of one of the company’s original fire trucks.