11/3/2009 3:06:00 PM Williams Pays it Forward this Saturday Benefit to honor area firefighters, police
Ryan Williams Williams-Grand Canyon News Reporter
WILLIAMS - Residents of Williams will honor the men and women who contained the Twin Fire, which threatened the city of Williams last month, with an event on Saturday called Williams Pays It Forward.
The Williams Pay It Forward Action Team headed by Kevin Young plans to raise money for the Williams Volunteer Fire Department and Williams Police Department at the event to be held at the Williams Rodeo Grounds from 5-9 p.m. The Williams Pays It Forward benefit will feature live music and entertainment, dancing, raffle, door prizes, pony rides and food and drinks.
Young said the benefit will be a good time for the whole family.
"We'll have a good old fashioned shindig to thank all these ladies and gentlemen that played an integral part in looking out for our community," Young said.
While the primary function of the event is to honor local and regional firefighters, organizers hope to promote the Pay it Forward concept in Williams as well.
Judy Lollich said the basic principle of the concept is helping someone in need without expecting anything in return. Instead, the individual who receives the help is asked to help three more people.
"The reason we're calling the event Pay it Forward is that all the proceeds we make that night will be split between the fire department and police department to give them seed money to do something good for the community in the future. All we want to do is thank people who really did save our community," Lollich said.
Williams Police Chief Herman Nixon said any money given to the police department would be put to good use in the spirit of the Pay it Forward concept.
"We're happy to be part of it and we're going to try to help the community the best we can with it," Nixon said. "What we will do is, any funds that come our way, if we find a family where both parents lost their jobs and they can't pay their bills or put a dinner on the table to feed their kids, we'll go out and help them with those funds. And then we'll ask them, we don't expect anything back, but when your neighbor needs their fence mended and they can't do it, will you help them?"
According to Young, the Pay it Forward Action Team has received monetary gifts and pledges of support as well as physical gifts. He went on to say that many businesses in town have stepped in to support the effort with local vendors and restaurants providing food items as well.
Lollich said the raffle will feature a Nintendo Wii game machine among many other items that have been donated.
"We have had lots of nice raffle gifts donated. We're going to have a reverse raffle for an opportunity to win $200 cash," she said.
Organizers say invitations to the event have been sent to all first responders that participated in stopping the progress of the Twin Fire. In addition letters have been sent to state representatives in an effort to publicize the event.
The 921-acre Twin Fire was the result of a controlled burn three miles southwest of Williams implemented on Oct. 1. The burn became a wildfire Oct. 2 when shifting winds caused spot fires to ignite outside of the burn project's borders. Sixty-four homes in Williams were evacuated.
For more information regarding the Williams Pays it Forward benefit or to donate volunteer time, money or raffle items, contact Judy Lollich at (928) 310-4929 or Lindie Rodgers at (928) 699-3641.
Reader Comments
Posted: Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Article comment by:
Rob
This is a silly idea. Williams Fire and Police are being reimbursed by the USFS for equipment, overtime, etc. These departments received compensation for what they did.
