Mt. Pleasant Volunteer Fire Department has canceled its week-long June street fair out of concern about holding large gatherings during the covid-19 pandemic.
It’s just the second time the annual tradition has been sidelined. The first time was in 1972, with the arrival of Hurricane Agnes.
“It was a big fundraiser for us every year,” fire Chief Jerry Lucia said of the fair, held the last full week in June. “I just could not take a chance on what was going to happen.”
With guidelines in place for social distancing, to control spread of the covid-19 virus, he said, “I don’t think they’re going to be letting more than 50 people attend events for a long time.”
The fair features amusement rides, games and food booths and normally is held on Smithfield Street, in front of the firemen’s club, and in adjacent parking lots.
Lucia said the fire department will be challenged to make up the proceeds from the fair, which generates more than a third of its fundraising income.
A fundraising ticket normally offered in conjunction with the fair already is available. The department’s goal is to sell 5,000 of the $5 tickets, which provide a chance to win a cash prize. Firefighters are selling the tickets at their club, at the Central and 3rd Ward fire stations and at the local Walmart store.
“The people in the borough have been very supportive,” said Lucia, who also is the town’s mayor. He said people who normally would buy one ticket have been buying as many as four tickets to help the department.
Still, he expects the department will be about $20,000 behind in its fundraising efforts because of the fair’s cancellation.
“We won’t make that up, but we may have other games of chance to bring in revenue,” he said.
Among the department’s obligations are payments on a 2019 Spartan fire engine, purchased for $479,000 to replace a 1998 truck.
The replacement engine “was a demonstration model, so we saved some money there,” Lucia said.
