.jpg)
In celebration of Easter, members of the Walkers Creek Fire Department fired up their meat smoker to cook up and sell ham and legs of lamb as a part of their seasonal fundraiser. They sold 30 hams and 12 lamb legs this past Friday, April 7.
The smoked meat fundraisers date from Thanksgiving in 2017 after members of the department built the smoker. For completion, the smoker was sent to Industrial Fabricators in Fishersville, Walker Creek Fire Chief Colby Irvine told The News-Gazette.
Beginning with smoked hams and turkeys for Thanksgiving, the department moved on to annually smoking Christmas hams, turkeys and pork butts; Easter hams and legs of lamb; and Fourth of July pork butts and smoked beef brisket.
“We just focus on the main center of the meal and what that main protein would be, whether it’s ham, turkey, or brisket because that’s what people have trouble finding or trouble doing themselves,” Irvine said.
In the holiday spirit, with each fundraiser, the department chooses one family in the community to receive a meat donation. This Friday, a family in Brownsburg received the department’s generosity.
To get the meats ready for purchase, department members start prepping the meat two days prior to smoking it. The department’s smoker holds about 50 averagesized pork butts, which they purchase locally, Irvine noted.
All of the proceeds raised from the fundraiser go towards funding the volunteer fire department, which serves Augusta and Rockbridge counties.
The Walkers Creek Fire Department is currently composed of 15 certified firefighters and 10 other volunteers who support and fund-raise for the department, Irvine said.
On average, the Walkers Creek Fire Department responds to 90 to 100 emergency calls per year with about 65 percent of those calls located in Rockbridge County and 35 percent dispatched in Augusta County.
