The Southwestern Association of Volunteer Fireman's Convention is less than one month away from encompassing the downtown Fredonia area this August. Plans are almost finalized and the convention committee is expecting up to 3,000 visitors representing 50 fire departments, and filling the 39 dugouts around the village from Aug. 5 through Aug. 8.
"When our convention committee first met we decided that one of our main goals was to showcase our beautiful village and all it has to offer," Southwestern Association of Volunteer Firemen President Anthony Faso said.
"Another important goal was to involve the local community as much as possible, peaking interest in the fire service and hopefully recruiting new members," he added.
Events begin on Aug. 5 with registration for members of the Southwestern Association taking place at the American Legion from 4-7 p.m. followed by the kick-off dinner.
The Fredonia Beaver Club will host this year's 101st Annual Southwestern Association of Volunteer Fireman's Convention kick-off dinner on Wednesday, August 5th from 5:00-8:00 pm. The dinner will feature a chicken barbecue and will officially open the 101st Annual Convention in Fredonia. Community members are invited to attend the event. Tickets for the event are $10 and can be purchased by calling Laurie Faso at 679-7403.
The dinner will be followed by the 50's Sock Hop in Barker Commons in conjunction with the Fredonia Recreation Department. Final details regarding this event will be released soon.
On Thursday, August 6 registration will continue and the buffet breakfast will begin at the Fredonia Beaver Club. Cost is $6.25 and the menu includes scrambled eggs, French toast, pancakes, sausage, bacon, home fries, coffee, tea, milk and juice. The Bucket Brigade Firematic Competition and Convention Crawl will also begin that day.
The real highlight of the day however may be the EMS/fire seminar at the 1891 Fredonia Opera House at 3:30 p.m. "Bringing Calm to Chaos: Coordinating the recovery of the crash of Continental Flight 3407" will be presented by Clarence Center Fire Chief, Dave Case and Tiger Schmittendorf, Deputy Fire Coordinator of the Erie County Division of Fire Safety.
This presentation will provide valuable insight into the coordination, communications, and cooperation that went into the recovery efforts following the crash of Continental Flight 3407 in Clarence Center, New York on February 12, 2009.
Clarence Center Fire Chief David Case will share his first-person account of the initial moments of chaos that ensued after a commuter plane crashed into a single family residence just a few steps from his fire house, killing 50 people.
Erie County Deputy Fire Coordinator, Tiger Schmittendorf, will offer a "big picture" overview of the local, county, state and federal agencies and the 1,000+ responders who cooperated in restoring calm to the small community so quickly.
Together they'll demonstrate how training, teamwork, and effective implementation of the incident command system played such an important role in the overall success of the incident.
A slew of events will follow on Friday and Saturday with detail to be previewed in the near future. For complete details visit www.swavf.com
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