Red Hot Fire Sale

We are excited at the Mill Spring Volunteer Fire Department because of the grant we got from the Polk County Community Foundation to help purchase vehicle extraction tools. These tools, commonly called "Jaws of Life" after those made by the Hurst company, are used to tear cars and trucks apart to extricate trapped victims after a traffic accident. They can also be used in other rescue situations.

The tools are costly -- about $25,000 for what we need -- and the foundation contributed $12,000 toward that goal. We have raised about $2,000 in door-to-door requests.

Now the Lake Adger Garden Club has stepped forward to help. They are organizing a "Red Hot Fire Sale" at the main station in Mill Spring Nov. 10. This is to be a huge garage/yard sale with people from throughout Polk County contributing items for sale. The Garden Clubbers have also arranged to sell tables to those who want to offer craft items and stuff like that.

Some people are donating nice furniture, slightly used appliances and other household items. Members of the department's auxiliary will sell baked goods.

A social event last week brought in donations of more than $600 from the Lake Adger Friends, who have adopted the Mill Spring and Sunny View Volunteer departments. Their pot-luck evening included a silent auction of such things as a truck load of firewood cut and split by one of the Friends, rare wine from the cellars of another, and a beautiful dogwood tree from a third.

We don't see much in the papers these days about Haiti, except when there is a storm. So here is an update on what is going on there -- or what is not going on. We tried several times to get a project going in Haiti to help the journalists there cope. But we were never successful.