EAST DURHAM FIRE DEPARTMENT TURNING 100 - Touch a Truck Anniversary Fundraiser

East Durham Fire Department will have its 100th Anniversary in 2027, getting a running start on the planned big celebration by holding a fundraising “Touch a Truck” car and truck show, last Sunday, the first of what will be many such efforts. Current and future members of the volunteer squad were on hand including (standing, first three left to right) fire chief Joe van Holsteyn and assistant chiefs Brian Lewis and Matt Matice along with senior member Neil Kellegher, who joined in 1966 (standing, eighth to the left). 

“She wanted it green,” says Michael Risch, speaking of his wife, Wendy, who purchased the nifty 1925 Ford T-Bucket from a man in Athens when it was pumpkin-ish orange. Michael, since then, has lost Wendy to cancer, and after her passing, redid the whole vehicle, painting it the color she wished, officially called “it’s green o’clock.” Michael lives in South Cairo and works for the town of Cairo highway department, noting the T-Bucket reaches low highway speeds.

Supporting firefighting brethren, Windham Hose Company No. 1 president  Michael Scarey joined East Durham volunteers for their fundraising car and truck show. Scarey, a past fire chief, has been a firefighter for 53 years, one of five family brothers dedicated to public service, following in the footsteps of their grandfather Harold Benedict Moore, who donated the first firetruck to the mountaintop unit, and their father James Scarey, founder of the Windham police department.

“It still goes very fast,” says Patrick Florak about his 1969 Corvette sport station wagon, custom built in 1972 by a Chevy dealership in Albany for promotional purposes.  “There aren’t many like this,” Florak says of the souped up ‘Vette, equipped with a 350 small block, bored out engine and a pair of Harley 4-barrels and blower.