Thank you everyone! An Update on the AV Fire Dept. New Truck Fundraiser
AVFD Fundraiser at Fashauer Vineyards
About a month ago I was approached by Olie Erickson of the Anderson Valley Fire Department asking if I would be interested in hosting a benefit BBQ at my home. I immediately said Yes! Thus began a few hectic weeks of planning and organizing what turned out to be an amazing and very successful event.
Our first challenge was getting a license to sell alcohol at the event. With a ton of help from a variety of sources we were able to accomplish this in enough time to collect the wine and beer donations ahead of the event. It took several people more than one trip to Ukiah to get his done!
I set up a GoFundMe page with the goal of raising $20,000. We had a matching grant of $3,000 that we reached in the first week. We attempted to raise $15,000 to get another match, but that didn’t happen. However, at the time the fundraiser was over we had raised over $8,000, still quite an impressive amount for such a small community.
On the 26th we had the actual benefit BBQ out in our vineyard. The Fire Department along with the Anderson Valley Volunteer Firefighters Association (AVVFA) handled the food and collecting the money; Olie ran the Que with help from Robin Bird and Judy Long. Patty Liddy was our cashier. We were given an incredible amount of beer and wine and sales of that were brisk. Fal Allen and Jen Peters were our bartenders. Sean Mullen brought out his DJ expertise and entertained everyone for the whole event.
We did not solicit silent auction items but we were given quite a few out of the blue - including wine, a stay at the Madrones or Brambles, an afternoon at High Rock Ranch, sessions with an acupressurist and a nutritionist, two picnic table made for the event by Olie Erickson, plus a truck load of firewood from Olie, and a load of rock from Greenwood Aggregates. There were other items as well that I’m not remembering. We raised a significant amount with this unplanned for aspect of the event.
We were also given several cakes to auction off - including two too-pretty-to-eat masterpieces from Julie Winchester. One of her cakes was sold twice! That cake alone brought in $1,000! Thanks for W. Dan for being our live auctioneer.
We raised all together over our $20,000 goal, which is just amazing. I cannot thank this community enough for it’s support. These funds will go toward the purchase of a new fire truck for the Greenwood Ridge substation of the AVFD. The need for this was proved that evening - it actually broke down at one point while it was being parked. So many people made this event happen and I’m going to try to list them but if I missed you, please forgive me!
Olie Erickson; Fire Chief Andres Avila; Colin Wilson; Van Williamson; Robin and Anne-Marie Bird; Angela DeWitt; Judy Long; Kyle Clark; Fred and Autumn Ehnow; Fal Allan; Jen Peters; Julie Winchester; W. Dan; Wynne Nord; Dawn Ballantine; Letitia Whitely; Sean Mullen; Roy Laird; Jeff & Sally-Anne Jindra; Chris Weiss; Deana Apfel; David Norfleet