Frozen firefighters out in force for a good cause
Members of the Onset Fire department are answering the call of the hungry in Wareham, braving the weekend cold to collect canned food as well as monetary donations during the Box 5 Association Cold for a Cause charity drive.
The 48-hour drive will be held at Scags Auto Body, 3094 Cranberry Hwy, across from Pizza Boy, from noon on Friday to noon on Sunday, November 28. Firefighters will be in the cold all day and all night, raising money and collecting food to defray the costs of distributing Christmas food baskets to Wareham families in need of assistance.
“We get lists from the schools…we also get families who call us,” John Gordon, president of Box 5 and an Onset firefighter, said.
In addition to the food and money collected at Cold for a Cause, Box 5 has had some help from the local Girl Scouts this year. The Girl Scouts collected “a couple hundred pounds” of food during their Halloween fundraiser.
It may seem like there’s little to stave off boredom for the long hours, but this group is content with food, conversation, and a bonfire burning brightly. “We just hang out at the fire…people from Box 5 and the fire department come by,” Gordon said.
10 p.m. Friday
So far the turnout has been a slow trickle, but according to firefighter Paul Ingeno the rush will come today and tomorrow.
“We always have a lot of people come on Saturday and Sunday.”
A new group of firefighters was huddled around the blazing bonfire, with some of the ladies who support them and a couple of boys tossing a football back and forth. Cars driving by honked to show their support, and according to Ingeno “We have local vendors feeding us.”
Ingeno said that despite the slow start they expect to be able to hand out about 100 baskets when the drive is through.
6 p.m. Saturday
Things were looking up as a group sat around the bonfire: the group collected about twice as much on Saturday evening as they had the previous night.
“Our goal is to do five more [baskets] each year," said Bob Osswald, who along with Mike Sanborn began this tradition about twenty years ago. "Our goal next year is to do Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
Osswald said there are many others who help make Cold for a cause happen.
School nurses provide about 90% of the names of children whose families are in need. He also credits local businesses. Mazzilli’s Farm Stand gives them great deals on the perishable food items they buy with the monetary donations, and the Bakery Outlet on Cranberry Highway provided “three pickup trucks full” of bread products one year, he said.
Osswald and Sanborn enjoy helping the less fortunate this time of year, although sometimes it’s more than a little heartbreaking. Osswald recalled one year when delivering a basket of food to a house “We got to the door and the little girl said ‘Ma we finally got something to eat.’”
Sunday 12 p.m.
As the even ended and the firefighters packed up, we got some final tallies.
Cold for a Cause collected 100-150 baskets worth of food for local families. Each basket works out to a turkey dinner with all the trimmings, breakfast food, and miscellaneous canned goods. Any leftover food will be donated to Damien’s Pantry.
The event also raised a little over $1,000 - slightly less than what has been raised in years past, a fact which was attributed to the tough economic climate.
At one point last night a homeless man, estimated to be about 60, wandered over to the fundraiser and asked for some food, organizers said. He was provided with a meal before he wandered away again into the woods.
Donations are still being accepted between now and one-week-before Christmas, and they can be dropped off or sent to the Onset Fire Department at 5 East Central Avenue in Onset.
Whether it’s one dollar or one can of food, every little bit helps.
