District 13: come on down!

For the first time in its history, fire district #13 is inviting community members to attend its annual awards banquet.

“Rather than a closed affair where we congratulate ourselves, it will allow the community to show appreciation,” chief David England said. “It’ll make it more meaningful to the volunteers.”

The March 10 banquet at the Inn at Semiahmoo is $23 per person and will feature a pasta buffet, music, dancing and guest speaker Dieter Schugt. “I asked him to speak because he’s been a very important link to the fire district with the city of Blaine,” England said. “He’s been a regular, faithful part of the strategic planning process.”

Social hour starts at 5:30, dinner at 6:30. The district will give awards for firefighter of the year and rookie of the year in the department, as well as most alarm responses and most improved for each of the department’s four stations.

The ceremony will also honor retiring volunteers Eddie Lathers, who served for 21 years, and Chuck Stanford, a 10-year veteran. “They’ve both been excellent volunteer firefighters,” England said. “They’ve responded to every kind of call you can think of, and we’ll just miss them a lot.” Stanford got an early start on his retirement with a Hawaiian vacation this week.

Lathers said although he’s sad to leave, he’ll be able to put more time into his position as a fire commissioner. “Twenty years is a pretty good service, so it’s time to step aside and put more time into the commissionership,” he said. “Before I started having the lack of time, it was very enjoyable being there with the guys and doing the training and keeping up; being a commissioner, I’ll still be there, and it unties some of the conflicts with doing a dual role – it’ll make being a commissioner easier.”

Tickets to the banquet are available at the Birch Bay station through March 1 and seating is limited. For more information, call 371-2533.

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