By JOHN KLINE
When you spend your life helping to protect your community, sometimes it’s nice to have that community return the favor.
That was the message sent loud and clear as part of a special car wash and bake sale fundraiser held at the Jefferson Township Fire Station north of Goshen Saturday.
The fundraiser was held in an effort to raise funds for the family of Shawn Gingerich, a volunteer firefighter with the Jefferson Township Fire Department who lost his home to a fire on March 9.
“We’re out here having a car wash and bake sale for Shawn,” said Dawn Covey, daughter of Jefferson firefighter Bob Fair. “He pretty much lost everything, and they had to start from scratch, so we decided this is what we’re going to do to show our support.
“They put their lives on the line for us each and every day, and so it’s time for us to step up and help them out now,” she said.
Chris Blackburn, wife of retired Jefferson firefighter Brad Blackburn, agreed.
“I’ve known Shawn for eight or nine years now, and he’s just a great guy,” Blackburn said. “His wife is phenomenal. She does a lot for our community schools. And they’re kids are great. My kids go to school with one of their sons. So when I got the call last Tuesday that it was one of our own guys, Dawn and I started organizing immediately.
“We’ve been doing a food drive. We’ve had clothes donated. Then on Thursday we decided to do the bake sale and car wash, and we’ve been working on it feverishly ever since,” she said.
And it appears the community got the message.
“Everybody is giving us donations. Everybody is doing everything they can do to help. I am very impressed with the community stepping up and helping out,” Covey said, noting that fundraiser traffic at the station had been nearly non-stop for most of the day. “Everyone is doing an awesome job. We had some lady come in here before we even started and donate a pretty big chunk of change, and all she got is a little plate of cookies. It’s pretty amazing.”
Blackburn was also impressed with the huge turnout Saturday, noting that the station even received help from firefighters outside of the Jefferson Township area.
“We’ve got firefighters doing the car wash. We’ve got kids of the firefighters helping. We’ve even got firefighters from other townships. I know we’ve got Cleveland Township, we’ve got Concord out here, Middlebury’s out here. We even had someone from Baugo. I’m really impressed with the response,” Blackburn said. “We’re just so happy that we’re able to help them out. We’ve had just random people coming in all day to donate, and we don’t even know who most of them are. It’s just an awesome feeling to see this kind of response.”
