SALLY ANN SHURMUR Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Thursday, September 14, 2006 12:00 am
A grateful, mostly intact, community gathers on Friday evening to thank first responders to the Jackson Canyon fire.
All first responders showing identification at the door get in free - and so do their families.
Everyone is welcome at $10 each. Kids 12 and under are free. Food and beverages and music will be at the Parkway Plaza Hotel, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
The Casper Mountain Fire Relief Benefit is a fund-raiser for a special response grant fund with United Way of Natrona County. Proceeds from the event will be shared by nonprofits who incurred costs during the Jackson Canyon fire, specifically but not limited to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army.
The United Way will simply serve as a clearinghouse to distribute the funds raised on Friday.
"It cost the Humane Society about $3,000 to house and feed all of the evacuated pets they got," said organizer Karin East, director of sales at the Best Western Ramkota Hotel.
She said Pat Sweeney of the Parkway Plaza, Pete Greiner and Bob Price started working on a thank you/benefit combination shortly after the fire abated, but planners wanted to be careful not to interfere with United Way's fundraising kickoff.
"Now the board of United Way is behind us 100 percent and we're ready to go," East said.
Planners from a variety of groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, Convention & Visitors Bureau and the emergency management office, are in need of business donations to make the proceeds for nonprofits larger on Friday night.
"One hundred percent of the money collected will go to the nonprofits," she said. "We're really looking for $500 donations from businesses, and with that they'll get armbands for Friday night for their employees."
Businesses may get their donations to the Chamber of Commerce, 500 N. Center, before Friday night.
Dinner will include a hot roast beef sandwich buffet, according to East, and beer and soda will be provided. A cash bar will be available as well.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal will sign a proclamation just before the event begins, and Sen. Craig Thomas, who was one of the fire's evacuees, is expected to attend, according to East.
Chad Lore will entertain the crowd, and a dramatic fire-themed art print that was used on first responder T-shirts will be auctioned during the evening.
East said "it's really cool, it's a flame coming out of a tree that looks like the devil."
Community News editor Sally Ann Shurmur can be reached at (307) 266-0520 or sallyann.shurmur@casperstartribune.net.