To describe the upcoming Shoemakersville Fire Company No. 1’s Lights and Sirens Parade, the Parade Chairman and 17-year volunteer at the fire company, Tim Seyfert, said, “It’s a very long-term fundraiser and it’s for the community to join us in our celebration.”
A 2000 graduate of Hamburg Area High School, Seyfert described how he has been working on the parade planning for more than a year, many days for four hours or more each day. Invitations were sent to more than 350 sites, including every fire company in the state, and reaching to New York and New Jersey. Another round of reminders were sent to those same sites to ensure the most attendance possible at the parade.
Seyfert performs daily bookkeeping on the donation checks that are arriving continuously from parade registrations or other contributions, and has everything parade-related documented in spreadsheets and lists. All of this documentation is just a fraction of the hard work that Seyfert has put toward making the parade a success, and other crucial details including approvals for road closures and obtaining permits at multiple levels also had to be completed accurately.
Additional work is turning outside now that the weather is improving, and the fire company property is undergoing spring maintenance to prepare for the major event.
Fire Lieutenant, Dave Rubright, discussed how the last parade was in 2009, but it wasn’t the fundraiser that the upcoming parade on May 2 will be. Parade books, produced by Reick’s Printing in West Reading, will be available with historic and other information about the fire company, as well as ads from fire companies and local businesses. T-shirts and mugs will also be available for purchase by parade-goers.
Tri-State Judges out of Lake Harmony will be on-site to judge the vehicles in this year’s parade, and as Rubright said about the trucks, “the more the better!”
More than 50 trucks are already pre-registered and that number is overwhelmingly expected to double by the day of the parade, according to Rubright. Approximately 20 awards are available to be disbursed by the judges.
The parade will start at Main Street and Zweizig Road and proceed to the fire house at 300 Church Ave. in Shoemakersville.
The sentimentality of fire fighters about their trucks will be displayed during the Housing ceremony, where the firefighters actually push the rescue, engine, tanker, and brush trucks into the bays at the Shoemakersville Fire Company at the end of the parade, paying tribute to the vehicles that make it possible for firefighters to keep so many residents safe. To add to the excitement, the a Medevac helicopter will also land during that time.
Food, drinks, music, and games will be occurring after 3 p.m. The Shoemakersville Lions Club will be providing food in the pavilion, a beer garden will operate by the fire house, and Candy’s Homemade Ice Cream will be available in a truck on the premises, with the ice cream sales courtesy of Cub Scout Troop 163 out of Shoemakersville. Games geared toward younger children will be coordinated by the Shoemakersville Recreation Board. The fire company is generously splitting the proceeds from all sales with their vendors.
Area residents or visitors should mark their calendars for Saturday, May 2, at 5 p.m., to attend what the Shoemakersville Fire Company No. 1 has worked so hard to accomplish under the leadership of Parade Chairman, Tim Seyfert. For more information about the parade, contact the fire company at 610-562-3998.
