Love felt at annual PCFD Valentine's Day dinner

Around Valentine’s Day every year, residents from Prairie City and neighboring communities gather to eat a gourmet meal and help raise a little money. The Prairie City Fire Department's annual Valentine’s Day dinner, held Saturday evening at Stampede restaurant, brought in more than 80 reservations and even more support for the local volunteer program.

With about 15 firefighters serving as chefs, wait staff, hosts and any other job around the restaurant, the tables remained full and happy as a dinner starting with an appetizer of cheese sticks and a salad followed by a dinner of steak with shrimp, a baked potato, green beans and a roll were served. Chocolate cake was the dessert selection for the romantic holiday meal.

“We started with the old bar owner and just keep doing it,” Ryan Van Der Kamp said. “We use it to raise money for equipment.”

Van Der Kamp said the first annual event was held seven years ago on Valentine’s Day and after receiving such as positive response, it has continued, growing every year. While it is a lot of fun for the firefighters to serve in a different role, they all tend to gravitate back to positions they have taken in the past.

“Arvin always does dishes, he fights to do dishes every year,” Van Der Kamp said. “We all just kind of have our spots, some people do the same thing every year.”

While the dinner does see new faces each year, a lot of the same customers make repeat visits to enjoy a tasty meal and help a good cause.

“A lot of the same people come back every year, it seems like there are a lot of the same faces,” Van Der Kamp said.

Two of those diners are John and Lee Anne DeVries who said they have been to the meal almost every year. Their son is a volunteer and they like to come out and support the cause.

“They usually have a good turn out, the food has always been pretty good,” Le Anne said.

The department uses the money to purchase needed equipment for service and one year the piece selected hit close to home for the DeVries family.

“One year they were buying the equipment to rescue people out of grain bins. We’re farmers so that was pretty important,” Le Anne said.

With plates shuffling in and out of the kitchen and customers leaving with smiles on their faces, the event was once again a success for the department.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com