VIDEO: Pecan Creek Volunteer Fire Department and Eisenhower Middle School are collaborating to showcase fire helmets for an upcoming fundraiser for the fire department. Local volunteer fire departments depend on donations and funding to operate. Debbie Meyers, a Pecan Creek volunteer firefighter, shared how the idea originated.
“My son, who’s actually one of our volunteers here and one of the Boy Scouts, said, ‘Hey, why don’t we do something with these helmets instead of throwing them away?’” said Meyers.
These volunteer firefighters decided to give them to Sundra Dunn, an art teacher at Eisenhower Middle School, who has worked there for seven years. She shares why they took on this project. “The financial secretary that used to work here asked us if we would want to take on this project of the helmets for an auction, so my students love to paint on any surface, so we said yes,” said Dunn.
Dunn also mentions what this means for students to give back as aspiring artists. “I teach them that and they are not too young to understand this in 8th grade that you can work towards a career and make money, but also you have to be generous as an artist and create work that supports the community and put these up for auction for a worthy cause,” said Dunn.
The worthy cause is to help raise money for the fire department. Tom Meyers, Chief of the fire department, says funding from the community is how they’re able to run the department. ”The majority of the funds that we receive that we use for day-to-day activities such as fueling the vehicles, tires, oil changes, etc, etc. That’s probably going to come from donations; otherwise, without donations or the kindness of people giving their money to us, we could not survive,” said Chief Meyers.
The fire department will host a fundraiser where the helmets will be auctioned off in October. “This will be our 3rd annual fall fundraiser. We usually base it off a scary Christmas because we do it around Halloween,” said Meyers. And the fire helmets are close to being ready for that auction. “Right now, we are finishing up one more helmet. We’ve completed three, and they’re on the last one. It’s almost complete,” said Dunn.
Not only is the auction for a good cause, but the painted helmets have a significant history, and that’s why Meyers says the community should come out and buy them. “They have been through structure fires. They did help save property and lives. So, the helmets that you’re receiving doesn’t only have artwork on it from schools, it also has a little bit of history because they were helmets that were used during activities for fire suppression,” said Chief Meyers.
