A delicious fundraiser for firefighting

It wasn’t the smell of smoke that attracted so much attention in Landmark on June 6, but rather the aroma of fresh coffee and cooking sausages that brought the public out to the local fire station.

“Nobody even notices the first batch of pancakes were a little overdone,” says Marie Marshall who is a regular attendee of the event and is kept busy trying to ration the syrup her three grandchildren, Liam, Nora and Lilly are drowning their breakfast in.

The annual event brings in around 900 supporters for the day and provides a terrific outing for everyone in the community, particularly the kids who get the chance to consume all the maple syrup they can handle while checking out the crew’s gear and even practice some “hose work” under the watchful eye of the station’s crew.

Sparky, the fire service’s mascot and bravely played on this already hot morning by firefighter Trevor Braun along with his assistant and “hydrater” Chris Biddulph, makes sure there are only wide eyes and smiles as people wait for their turn to get at the “high-flipped flap jacks.”

“The annual breakfast has been a feature of the Taché fire service since 2004,” says Deputy Chief Jason Kroeker, when it was run from the station in Lorette. But a steadily increasing population, “like with the new housing development here in Landmark,” adds station captain and RM of Tache councillor Steven Bowker, has meant that “each station now runs its own breakfast to raise funding for things like training for our volunteers.”

The Landmark station’s volunteer crew is a young team, with firefighters like Jordan Young, who is showcasing the engine’s equipment to the public, has a under a year with the service, and Janet Lawson, teaching youngsters the basics of hose handling, has just over a year. “This is my chance to give back to the community. I love it here,” she says.

Chad Swenarchuk has four years with the team and proudly exercises his bragging rights for holding the day’s highest pancake flip while he cooks at roughly five feet. “I’ve never missed one yet. I always bring it in for the pancake superhero landing,” he says, spatula in one hand and tinfoil roaster in the other.

The crew at the Landmark station is also a family affair, as Hannah Waldner and her daughter Isla sell the tickets to both the breakfast and for the raffle prizes to be drawn while watching husband and father Shannon, with 2.5 years with the service, answer questions and play back-up catcher to Swenarchuk in case he gets carried away with the spatula.