Worthington community shows support as volunteer fire department adapts fundraiser amid pandemic

WORTHINGTON, Iowa (KCRG) - One Sunday every September, the sizzle of sirloins on the grill summons hundreds of people out to the Worthington Community Fire Department’s steak fry.

“This is the hot spot,” Rebecca Shady of nearby Dyersville said. “It’s usually pretty packed, and sometimes I know it’s hard to get tickets, and in years past, I’ve struggled to get tickets before they’re sold out.”

Shady said both of her parents work for the volunteer fire department, so she attends each year — even as the pandemic forced the department to change its typical format of a community meal in 2020.

“I was worried that it would be canceled, but I figured that they’d be able to find some way to be innovative and make it happen yet,” Shady said.

They did, with the steak fry going curbside.

“This is actually the only fundraiser that our directors do every year,” Chief Rick Wolfe said. “So we normally serve about 800 people.”

Wolfe said they sold just shy of 700 tickets this year, as cars lined up to pick up their steaks and sides in Styrofoam boxes handed to them through the window.

Canceling wasn’t an option for the 25-person volunteer department, Wolfe said.

“In the volunteer fire departments, we don’t charge for calls, so everything we do comes out of our directors' budget, the money we get from our cities as far as fire protection, and the monies we get through the county,” he said.

The department relies on steak fry funds to buy new equipment, including a pump truck they bought a few years ago. The steak fry tradition started in 2013 to raise money for the truck, and funds raised Sunday would go toward paying it off.

“This truck replaced a 30-year-old truck. I’m not sure — this year or next year, we should have this truck paid off,” Wolfe said.

If a pandemic couldn’t cancel the 2020 steak fry, a little wet weather Sunday wasn’t going to either.

“This is huge to us and huge to me,” Wolfe said. “You always cross your fingers when you’re doing a fundraiser like this or any fundraiser that hopefully the community does come out and support you.”

This year, the Worthington community did.

But like a lot of folks, Shady said she hopes 2021 brings the steak fry back to its regular setup.

“Definitely return to everybody sitting together,” Shady said. “It’s a big community down here, so getting to socialize with everyone, that’s half the fun.”

Copyright 2020 KCRG. All rights reserved.