Orwigsburg Fire Department News:

Capital Campaign and How You Can Help!

The Friendship Hose Company No. 1 of Orwigsburg, or Orwigsburg Fire Department has
some more exciting news! You may remember or have recently seen our plans to build a new fire station in town. In a previous article, we mentioned the need for the community’s support and that we would be kicking off a Capital Campaign. The time has come toofficially anouce that our campaign is live.

On Friday January 24th, with the gracious help of the Schuylkill Chamber of Commerce, we officially began the campaign. Our goal is to raise the needed six million dollars to cover the cost of the project. We know this seems like a large number, and it certainly is. However, we see the costs rising in the future and our needs ever growing. This is an all-in cost, including furnishings and miscelanious items needed to complete the project.
While the plan is not completely finalized, the building will be a 2 story structure of over 10,000 square feet. It will have four garage bays, and a museum on the first floor. It will have a place for our gear and a place to wash and dry our gear. There will be plenty of storage included in the apparatus bays. The second floor will house offices, sleeping quarters a gym and a day room as well as a large training room/community room that we plan to open to our community partners.

There will also be a back-up generator and capabilities to “self dispatch“ in the event the county system is down. This will also allow us to open the building as an emergency shelter if the need would ever arise again in town. We will be able to accomdate needs such showers, meals and a place to stay if the need arrises.
We have applied for numerous government funds and we have solicited the help of
professional grant writers at the state level. We have a great relationship with all of our governmental leaders from the federal level down to our borough council. We are hopeful that the lion’s share of the necessary funds with come through those channels. We do anticipate that those will have some sort of matching component and we will need to plan for that.

This is where we need the help of our community! With the help of our members and the community, we are confident we can find some donors to help offset that number. Below you will find a list of donor levels that will be memorialized in our museum area. There are also oportunities to put you name, or your business name on various areas throughout the building for a period of ten years. We ackowledge the size of these numbers, and that many of you do not have the means to donate at that level. Because of that, there are options for payment plans as well as simply donating at any amount.

There are mulitple ways to donate. Obviously, we would love to meet personally to explain the design and how we will allocate those funds. You can also send a check payable to:
Friendship Hose Co. No. 1
121 North Liberty Street
Orwigsburg, PA 17961
(please include Capital Campaign in the memo)

For those that prefer a online option, you can visit our website at:
http://www.orwigsburgfire.com
There you will find links to donate and you can also follow along with the project and get to know our members.

Also, on April 26th we will be hosting a Gala Casino Event at the Memorial, you can find those details on the website as well and watch your mail for more information.
If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to our Fire Chief, Scott Rarick
(raricksm@comcast.net) or myself (bmiller1219@gmail.com) or if you drive by and see the doors up, stop in and say hello! We appreciate your anticipated and ongoing support, please be safe!

Thank you,

Brad Miller, President
Friendship Hose Co. No. 1
Orwigsburg, Pennsylvania

DONOR LEVELS & GIFT AMOUNT
Fire Chief $50,000
First Assistant Chief $30,000
Second Assistant Chief $25,000
Captain $15,000
Lieutenant $10,000
Engineer $5,000
Firefighter $1,000

NAMING RIGHTS CHART & RECOGNITION AREAGIFT AMOUNT
Museum 1 $30,000
Engine Bay Hanging
Sign 4 $25,000
Day Room 1 $20,000
Gym 1 $5,000
Elevator First Floor 0 $5,000
Elevator Second Floor 1 $5,000

Conceptual Design of the Building