In a show of solidarity over the loss of two of their own, the Lynnport and New Tripoli fire companies presented the Walnuttown Fire Company with a check in excess of $9,000.

The check was presented at a training in Virginville in May.

“Walnuttown was there,” explained Jim Clare of the Lynnport Fire Company. “They knew we were making a donation, but they were quite shocked at the amount.”

Fire Chief Jeff Buck and Assistant Fire Chief Robert Shick lost their lives when they were struck by a man driving under the influence in Richmond Township in early April, according to police.

The fallen firefighters had ties to the two fire companies.

“The Shicks had history at New Tripoli and Lynnport,” Clare said. “The loss really hit close to home.”

“The assistant fire chief’s father, ran with New Tripoli and Lynnport as fire police,” added Scott Koenig, a director of the New Tripoli Fire Company. “The Lynnport Fire Company masterminded the idea.”

Lynnport donated the profits from one of its monthly breakfasts to the cause.

“We had scheduled our monthly breakfast for the same date [Walnuttown] was having a breakfast in Fleetwood,” Clare explained.

“We couldn’t cancel our breakfast and at the same time, we did not want to compete with theirs, so we decided to donate what we earned to them.”

“For the benefit breakfast, we had 543 people,” Clare said. “We did advertise it on Facebook, and on the Channel 69 website and other social media.”

“It was the most amount of people that we ever served, and we didn’t run out of anything,” he said. “It was an awesome turnout.”

“New Tripoli vowed we would match whatever they earned at breakfast,” Koenig said. When a contractor decided to donate the cost of the memorial he had previously bid back to the fire company, “we turned around and decided that money would go to Walnuttown.”

The New Tripoli Fire Company had suffered its own losses in December 2022, when Zachary Paris and Marvin Gruber were killed. The two firefighters will be honored with a memorial that will be placed “outside the door when you come into the social hall,” Koenig said.

“New Tripoli and Lynnport are just a few miles apart and we serve the same community,” Clare said.

“It is very hard for all the small-town volunteer companies to meet ends,” he continued. “They’re constantly struggling to come up with the money.”

To help with the bills, the Lynnport Fire Company holds an all-you-can-eat breakfast the third Sunday of each month from September to May.

“We offer sausage, scrambled eggs, biscuits, French toast, waffles and firehouse coffee from Maxatawny,” Clare said. “[Attendance] has been growing. Sometimes we have between 300 to 400 people.”

Volunteers are the lifeblood of the fire companies.

“I’m a trustee and I also run the breakfast,” Clare said. “I do a lot in the kitchen.

“I’ve volunteered at a fire company my whole life,” Clare added, “and my son’s a fire fighter.”

Koenig echoed that sentiment.

“I’ve volunteered with the New Tripoli and Lynnport Fire Companies for 50 years,” he said.