By Jennifer Rios
The San Angelo Standard-Times
CONCHO VALLEY, Texas — Rainy day funds, like rainy days themselves, are rare for West Texas volunteer fire departments.
Usually, cash for the thinly financed organizations of men and women who deal daily with medical emergencies and natural disasters is immediately turned into new hoses, new radios, new trucks.
A summer of contentious brush fires across the Concho Valley has drained the firefighters’ coffers, and local residents recognized their plight. Farmers, ranchers and businessmen and businesswomen — all grateful to the volunteers — threw their support behind a daylong ranch rodeo in July held to raise money for the volunteers.
Benny Cox, who organized a multipronged effort to raise money for area departments, called the fundraiser “an easy sale.”
“People feed off other people’s energy,” Cox said, “and that’s what makes these things work.” The rodeo — which included a silent and live auction, lunch and a raffle for a John Deere Gator allterrain vehicle — raised more than $150,000, Cox said.
About half the proceeds were raised by firefighters who sold $5 raÜe tickets up to eight weeks before the rodeo.
The amount each department raised went directly back to its bank account.
In ticket sales, departments raised anywhere from $100 to $11,020, an amount that Christoval Volunteer Fire Department used for new radios.
Jimmy Barton, Christoval volunteer firefighter and director of the fire board, said money raised this year through multiple nonprofit agencies, businesses and individuals also helped the department purchase a brush truck to replace a 40-year-old military unit.
A sketchy connection on the old radios will be resolved with the purchase of three new truck units and six handheld radios, Barton said. The switch involved updating from 45-watt to 110-watt devices.
“We had trouble communicating with the San Angelo dispatch office because Christoval sits in a hole,” Barton said. " With these bigger radios we’re going to improve ... which means no ‘please repeat.’ We had a big problem with that.”
Barton said Christoval’s funds, like those donated to other departments, are being spent locally. Mechanics, tire shops and Texas Communications, the only provider that sells twoway radios in San Angelo, have seen fire chiefs and department treasurers in the past few months with cash to spend.
Charlie Campbell, service manager with Texas Communications, said the business has served departments in the 13 surrounding counties for years. When fires flared across the Concho Valley, its staff volunteered their time, equipment and expertise such as setting up incident command centers and replacing repeaters and generators.
The volunteers are “certainly the unsung heroes,” he said. “We’re glad we’re here to try and help them with these things.”
Barton, who has been in charge of fundraising for the past 13 years, said this year’s donation total is a 100 percent increase over what the department has received in the past.
The department sold tickets by setting up at Walmart entrances, mailing out notices in connection to its annual barbecue and by its 15 volunteers taking it upon themselves to raise money.
At the 1st Community Credit Union Spur Arena, the July rodeo lasted from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a noon lunch and an afternoon auction. Several volunteer departments brought their trucks for double duty — both as display to the public and a way to transport in case of emergency.
Cox, who has hosted auctions for both livestock and fundraising efforts for years, said this was the largest variety of donated items he’d ever seen. Between the two, it raised more than $50,000. Items and services ranged from a hot air balloon ride, sale of two 18-month-old registered Angus bulls, and a 1911 commemorative Colt pistol to cowboy artwork, a gift card for a $500 felt hat and a Texas flag flown at the Capitol and donated by state Rep. Drew Darby. Two committees made up of about 55 men and women executed the event, Cox said. While there is talk of doing it again next year, nothing is set.
Money from initial ticket sales has been sent to departments through the San Angelo Area Health Foundation, and the second round of checks — each roughly $2,500 — likely will be mailed out the first week of September, Cox said.
“We had overwhelming response both before and during the event,” Cox said. It’s amazing to see “how special people can be in times of need.”
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