GORE BAY—With a highly successful Fall Harvest Auction in October the Rotary Club of Gore Bay has made significant donations to three Western Manitoulin volunteer fire departments.

“On behalf of the Gore Bay Rotary Club and the many lovely donators who contributed to our annual Fall harvest auction (held October 11) to make it a success, we are in the position of having funds available to support the community,” said Peter Carter, president of the Rotary club in a presentation made last week at the Gore Bay fire hall. “We decided to spread the wealth around to all three fire departments in our area, for everything you do in the community.”

The Gore Bay/Gordon-Barrie Island, Billings township, Burpee and Mills township volunteer fire departments each received a donation of $3,333.

“On behalf of the three fire departments we would like to thank the Rotary Club for your generous financial support of our fire departments,” said Mike Addison, Gore Bay fire chief and co-chair of the Manitoulin Mutual Aid committee. “The firefighters from all three volunteer departments work hard and train hard to serve the community. These three fire departments do a lot of work together providing things like tanker support, water and manpower. Probably the biggest fire we all worked on to put out, at least recently, was the Woods Lane Apartments fire earlier this year (in Gore Bay). We thank the Rotary Club for thinking of us and the support your club is providing.”

The Gore Bay fire department will be putting their donation towards communications, a radio tower, Billings donation going toward a defibrillator and possibly a portable radio, with Burpee and Mills fire department funds going toward breathing apparatus for the firefighters.

Mr. Carter encouraged the local fire departments to keep the Rotary club, “in mind for future endeavours if you need help. We are proud to be able to help out each fire department.”