Firehouse Pancakes

While Spring officially arrived on Thursday, March 20th, it really became official when the Marco Island Fire Rescue Foundation hosted its annual spring pancake breakfast event. Islanders rose to a beautiful day and headed out to celebrate with scrambled eggs, sausage, and the world-famous offering of pancakes with coffee and juice for all to enjoy.

The event was back for the second year in a row since the newly redesigned Marco Island Station 50 had been reopened after the demolition of the older structure, and the all-new station was turned over to the City of Marco by the contractor on April 28, 2023. It also serves as the City’s Official Emergency Operations and Data Center while meeting all of the enhanced safety standards and serves to house city personnel in case of natural disasters.

Besides enjoying the culinary delights that were provided at the morning’s event, long lines of attendees took advantage of touring the new station to see how a firefighter/medic spends his or her time at the station. No longer is the field one which is solely male dominated, but it is estimated that today over 10% of those who choose this profession are female and rising.

“This event has truly become a very anticipated one within the community and gives our personnel an opportunity to speak with residents and visitors to showcase our capabilities and make them more familiar with what we do,” said Fire/Rescue Chief Chris Byrne.

Attendees stopped by the Foundation Merchandise Table to purchase the ever-popular hats and attire gear, showing their support for department members. “It’s really nice to see the shirts being worn out in the public,” said Sue Kozlowski, who coordinates the many offerings provided by the foundation.

The Marco Island Fire/Rescue Foundation was founded 18 years ago to assist firefighters and members of their families should special needs arise in their lives, from covering the costs of medical services not included under standard insurance coverages, gaps in coverages provided by homeowners insurance, and other members in need of specialized assistance.

Another area the Foundation becomes involved in deals with scholarship programs for firefighters and their immediate family members to assist with covering educational costs for those in need. These are the receipts from the yearly cruise raffle, which was held at the annual breakfast fundraiser, and would totally go towards funding that endeavor.

Toward the end of the event, Foundation President Dianna Dohm announced that the winner of the much-anticipated raffle for a seven-day cruise was Harvey Amen from Naples, Florida. The sales of those raffle tickets would go directly into the Foundation Scholarship Fund.