Tabernacle Methodist Church of Townsville hosted a Pancake Supper to raise money for the Townsville Volunteer Fire Department.

The Feb. 28 fundraiser netted $2,000 and that amount was matched by the church’s Missions Team for a total donation of $4,000.

The fire department recently purchased a new truck replace its 1983 Ford F-5000 Engine truck.

The new truck will help the department’s ISO rating, which currently is a 6 – but that’s down from a previous rating of 9. The lower the rating, the better. The rating affects homeowners’ insurance costs.

The volunteer fire departments each received $130,000 from the county to operate and they also are reimbursed for part-time employees. But like the other volunteer fire departments, they rely on fundraisers and donations from the community. Townsville VFD has boot drives on Memorial Day weekend and Labor Day weekend and the annual stew sale is the first Saturday in December. Mark Saturday, Dec. 6 on the calendar to purchase stew this year.

Tyrone Terry is the chief of the Townsville fire department, which also runs first responder calls into Mecklenburg County, VA, and provides mutual aid with fire calls. Mecklenburg County kicks in $4,500 for those services.