Banquet to honor volunteers for their community service

Warren County will be holding a special Bicentennial Volunteer Banquet at McMinnville Civic Center on Saturday, Sept. 29 to honor the county’s rural volunteer fire departments, community improvement clubs, the fair board and the Warren County Rescue Squad.

A BBQ supper will be served, and entertainment is being sponsored by Ben Lomand Telephone and Caney Fork Electric. Admission is free, but is by invitation only.

The event is the brainchild of County Executive John Pelham and former County Commissioner Swanson Bennett. Bennett pointed out how important these organizations and volunteers are to our community, and have been for decades, and recalled an earlier effort to honor them and bring attention to their work with a large spread in the Southern Standard.

‘Our insurance agents got together and formed an organization called the ‘Fire Safety Support Group,’ Bennett said. ‘Ben Vaughn worked with me at that time, so we went around and got pictures of all these fire departments and brought them back and made arrangements with the paper to put in a two-page spread so we could get them all in there.

‘A copy of that still hangs at the Farm Bureau office,’ Bennett said. ‘Those guys really did appreciate that. And they always look at it when they come by even now, and that’s been over 20 years. It was in 1986.’

Bennett is currently working with the Standard to obtain current photographs and information in order to put together a series of articles on the various volunteer groups both prior to and after the banquet.

Another aspect of this project, according to Bennett, is to help these organizations to raise money, much of which is done through memberships.

‘That two-page spread got some attention from people all over the county,’ Bennett said. ‘And it made it a lot easier for them to collect their memberships. And they’re having a hard time now, so they need a little public awareness for what they’re doing. They do so much for the county.’

There are currently 11 community improvement clubs, including Brookside, Campaign, Centertown, Fairview, Harrison Ferry, Jacksboro, Lucky, Midway, Newtown, Vervilla and Wayside. Though Bennett says some of these may not be very active currently, they are still in existence and have buildings to house the clubs.

The rural fire departments include:

‘ Campaign-Rock Island ‘ substation Midway

‘ Centertown ‘ substation airport

‘ Collins River ‘ substation Irving College

‘ Harrison Ferry

‘ Morrison ‘ substations Smartt Station and Highway 55

‘ North Warren ‘ substations at Wayside and Sneed Road

‘ Viola ‘ substation Brookside

‘This is a way for us to try and let these volunteers know how much we appreciate what they do,’ said Pelham. ‘Especially in this, our bicentennial year.’

For more information, contact County Executive John Pelham’s office at 473-2505.