Volunteers with Fire District 3 serve food to hungry residents during the Fisherman's Breakfast held on April 23. Members of the Boy Scouts also volunteered.
MEDICAL LAKE – The annual Fisherman's Breakfast, held at the Medical Lake Fire Station on April 23, marked the opening day of trout season. It was also the first in-person event since the onset of COVID.
Mike Meyer, who has been volunteering with Spokane County Fire District 3 (SCFD3) for 11 years, explained the SCFD3 Volunteer Association wanted to get the breakfast going again. So they re-ignited the effort this year.
SCFD3 Fire Chief Cody Rohrbach said the volunteers paid for the food and raffle prizes.
"They paid for the entire bill out of their own pockets," Rohrbach said. "The association is filled with people that lead with a servant's heart, and serving the public is what we do."
Trout season is the official marker for the annual event, and the volunteers always try to get an early start.
"We were here cooking up sausage, eggs, hash browns, and pancakes at midnight," Meyer said. "It started a bit slow in the early morning hours but has been non-stop since seven o'clock.
"We just want to serve the community, feed some people, and have fun today."
Their efforts go far beyond simply having fun, though, as the proceeds help various parts of the communities in the West Plains.
Division Chief Dustin Flock explained that a lot of the funding goes to people who have experienced loss due to fire.
"In large part, the funding we bring in will help people and families who have suffered loss through fire or have been displaced by fire," Flock said. "We actually had a family in Medical Lake recently displaced by fire, so some of this will help those people. And we were heavily involved with helping the families of Malden. Some of which are still trying to rebound from the fire."
Rohrbach said that this event's success was due to society seeing a return to normalcy. He explained the impact COVID had on fundraisers was very heavy because it was so hard to bring people together for a cause physically.
"It's good to get people to come out again and have a return to normalcy with our events," Rohrbach said. "The community involvement has always been fantastic."
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