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| Cochranville Fire Company member Dennis Keenan prepares for this week's fire company carnival. |
The annual Cochranville Fireman's Carnival brings
old-fashioned family fun to the area. This year, the carnival will run
Wednesdays through Saturdays, July 20 to 23 and July 27 to 30, with
rides, games, food and live music every night.
The
carnival will be open from 6 to 10 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday
nights and from 6 to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights. Every night
is family night, with discounted prices for rides available by
purchasing wristbands in advance online.
"We try
to put a family carnival together so parents can come, teenagers can
come and young children can come - there's something for all of the
family," carnival committee member Dennis Keenan said. "That's the
history of the firehouse. The fire company started having carnivals for
fundraising in 1946.
Live music is a big part of
the carnival. Each evening there will be a different featured band
performing. Several of the bands are popular favorites returning to
perform again, plus there are some new bands on the schedule this year.
Gene Douglas with Country and More and the West Chester Swing Kings are
new additions this year that will appear on July 20 and 21,
respectively.
The Band and The Coyotes are
country music groups that will perform on July 27 and 28, respectively.
Returning favorites Chestnut Ridge, Hung Jury, Brian Clayton and the
Green River Band, and Summit Hill are returning bands that will be
featured on one of the Friday or Saturday nights.
Last-minute
plans for theme nights are still in the works, but information will be
available on the fire company website as the carnival opening
approaches.
In addition to the fun and excitement
of the carnival, this year there will be a chance to get an advance
look at a piece of structural steel from the World Trade Center. The
piece of I-beam that was once part of a floor structure in one of the
towers was salvaged from the wreckage. The fire company sent in an
application to the New Jersey and New York Port Authority to receive a
piece of the metal and was approved.
"The process
took almost a year from the time we sent the application in," Keenan
said. "When (I) look at it, I get emotional about it. It's something in
history that's going to be in Cochranville."
The
plans are to remove the rust from the 115-pound piece of girder, add a
protective coating, and then make it a part of the memorial that stands
outside the firehouse. A formal dedication ceremony will be held in the
fall. "If all plans work out, by Sept. 11 we'll have a memorial to the
people who lost their lives on 9-11," Keenan said.
Local
firms have contributed their time to the preparation of the steel, and
other businesses are building additional brickwork onto the memorial to
accommodate it. The present memorial recognizes fire chief Wayne Yost,
who died in the line of duty in 1999, suffering a heart attack while at
the scene of a fire.
All proceeds from the
carnival will benefit the Cochranville Fire Company to help cover
operating costs. The fire company is an all-volunteer effort supported
by members of the community who give their time and risk their lives for
their neighbors.
The fire company building is
located at 3135 Limestone Road, Cochranville. For more information,
readers may visit the website at
www.cochranvillefire.com.
