Community members came out to support the Crooks Fire Department during the meat raffle that was held at Safari Bar and Grill. The proceeds went to the Crooks Fire Department. (Photo/Adisen Stadem) 

Sara Stadem | Editor 

The year of 2020 saw a number of fundraising opportunities cancelled for many organizations due to COVID-19. So, some of these groups are looking for additional opportunities to fundraise in 2021 to help make up that difference and the Crooks Fire Department is doing just that. 

The Safari Bar and Grill and Renner Meat Locker held a meat raffle on Sunday, March 14, when they joined forces with the Crooks Fire Department with the hopes of helping out a local community volunteer group. 

Crooks Fire Chief Mike Harstad explained this past year with COVID-19 has made fundraising very difficult for all volunteer groups but especially fire departments. “We rely so much on donations from our communities and surrounding areas to support our yearly budget,” Chief Harstad said. “We typically host pancake breakfasts, soup diners and a dueling piano show that account for a big portion of our operating budget. 2020 saw all of those things canceled. While we have lost those fundraisers it’s so important to make every opportunity count in 2021.” 

When asked how Crooks Fire Department was chosen as the benefactor of the meat raffle from Sunday, Safari Bar and Grill Manager Serena Campbell said, “Sandi (one of the owners) and I talked about who we would like to start the meat raffles for and we decided our local community fire departments would be a great start,” She continued, “We feel with COVID that hit last year, a lot of nonprofit and volunteer places have had their funds cut down so we wanted to do something to help out different communities.” 

The meat is donated from the Renner Corner Meat Locker who covers half of the cost while Safari Bar and Grill pay the other half from part of the money raised. There were five meat bundles that were raffled during the two-hour meat raffle. 

Volunteer firefighter Chad Moller said, “This was our first time being a part of a meat raffle fundraiser and were blown away by the support in a two-hour time frame; we raised over $900. This money will be used to purchase and update equipment that is outdated.” 

Campbell said they had a great turnout and explained the meat raffle is new to Safari Bar and Grill so they are still trying to get the word out to get a bigger crowd. 

“We appreciate the community’s support in raising money for local fire departments and other nonprofit organizations we have coming up,” Campbell said. She continued, “I would also like to thank the Renner Corner Meat Locker for donating the meat for the raffle. We hope to see more people coming out in the upcoming weeks to support this new endeavor we started at Safari Bar and Grill.”  

Despite this being a new adventure for both Crooks Fire Department and Safari Bar and Grill, the consensus is the event was a success. 

“The turnout was awesome, more than we expected,” Chief Harstad said, “The event at the Safari was new to us and we can’t thank Serena and her staff enough for allowing us to partner with them on this opportunity.” 

Safari Bar and Grill will be holding meat raffles every Sunday from 3-5 pm, with local fire departments scheduled through April 18 (Safari Bar and Grill is closed April 4 so there will not be a meat raffle that day).