Heather's Corner: This Saturday, Support Oro Valley's Inaugural Firefighters BBQ Challenge

Fire departments and fundraisers have a long history together using the funds for anything from equipment to local charities. Some departments rely heavily on keeping their operations running up to par with fundraisers and these can include pancake breakfasts, bingo, calendars (hint, hint, Golder Ranch Fire Department), and the always popular barbecues.

Though I was having trouble finding the actual history behind the origination of the first BBQ and fire departments, there are countless websites advertising fire departments and their annual "BBQ cook-offs" spanning the lengths of 65+ years. These are traditions long-steaped in the departments history.

And lucky enough for Oro Valley, Golder Ranch Fire District will host it's First Annual North Tucson Fire Fighters Challenge this Saturday, September 20th, at Steam Pump Ranch.

This will be a family event that will "place local firefighters in a head to head pit master cook-off competition in order to raise money for the local foster care and autism service communities." It will also be a platform for local child care services to meet the public and share information. There will be fun and food for everyone! For more information you can email Jose Samaniego at 3832charities@gmail.com.

Let's all try and make our first annual BBQ event as memorable as we can and hopefully someone will be writing about our 65th annual someday. And if anyone out there knows the history of how fire departments and BBQ's came to be, we'd love to hear from you.
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Heather Nenadovich has lived in Oro Valley a total of five years. She has a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Arizona. Her husband is Canadian so she is a hockey fan by default and so are her two very clever children. When not being a mommy, she enjoys hiking in Catalina State Park, hand building pottery, and gardening. Her favorite things about living in Oro Valley are the towns recognition of art and culture, their commitment to preserving nature and the Christmas parade. (Also anything from GMG Chinese Bistro.)