Members of the Bargersville Community Fire Department load up baskets of fresh and non-perishable food to deliver to local families as part of the 2022 Good Cheer Fund distribution. Delivering the food has become an important tradition for the department.
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This was one run the members of the Bargersville Community Fire Department couldn’t wait to make.
The department’s on-duty firefighters had an important mission on a cold mid-December morning. Like hundreds of people from around Johnson County, they were part of the Good Cheer Fund, with a mission to provide comfort to the less fortunate, in the form of enough food to last through the holidays.
“They get really excited. They all know we need to support our community as much as our community needs us to support them,” said Karen Nowacki, administrative assistant for the Bargersville department. “So they’re happy to do this.”
Delivering baskets of food through the Good Cheer Fund has become an important part of the Bargersville department’s holiday experience. For roughly 10 years, the on-duty firefighters who are available to help go out into the Bargersville community to distribute canned and fresh food to households in need of food.
The tradition fits into the fire department’s efforts in supporting and encouraging members to help the community in any way possible.
”The Good Cheer Fund has done an amazing job of supporting those in need during the holiday season, and we are very thankful for our members that assist with this program,” said Eric Funkhouser, Bargersville fire chief.
The Bargersville Community Fire Department connected with the Good Cheer Fund through Nowacki. She had been involved with Good Cheer Fund in the past, and when her son, Tyler Brumble, was old enough, she was looking for a way they could both serve the community together.
She signed up to help, and asked if anyone else in the fire department wanted to join. Others signed up to volunteer, and department leadership thought it would be positive for available on-duty firefighters to help as well.
“We are very fortunate to get to help those in need when they call 911 during an emergency, and this great program allows us to help in other much-needed ways for our county residents,” Funkhouser said.
Nowacki works with Good Cheer Fund organizers to get lists of names of local households receiving a delivery, making it easier for firefighters to pass out the food. On the morning of the delivery — Dec. 23 this year — she and other volunteers pick up baskets at the Johnson County REMC for all of the households they’ve been assigned, and bring them back to Bargersville.
Then the different town departments go to work.
“We give them to the department, depending on where they’re at in our area,” Nowacki said. “It’s nice for them to do it, because they can go out and do community service. The community gets to see them in a non-traumatic environment.”
Once again this year, Nowacki is planning on spearheading the effort for Bargersville. Her son, now a freshman at the University of Kentucky, was concerned he wouldn’t be home to take part. Thankfully, the delivery dates match up, allowing him to carry on the tradition.
“I love to help the community, and it’s nice that we have this tradition every year that I get to do with my son and my fire family,” she said.
