The Franklin Reporter & Advocate Eight Villages, One Community
After a 5-year hiatus, the crowds returned to the renewed Middlebush Volunteer Fire Department’s Ladies Auxiliary’s Tricky Tray fundraiser on November 16.
Held at Thomas J. Kavanaugh VFW Post 2290 in Manville, the event drew more than 300 people and raised more than $8,000, according to Sandra Reier, the Auxiliary’s vice-president.
The money raised goes toward capital improvements at the Middlebush VFD headquarters on Olcott Street, she said.
Attendees bought tickets and dropped them into cups in front of hundreds of possible gifts to win.
Tricky trays have the hallmarks of giant indoor tailgate parties, with people bringing their own food and –sometimes adult – beverages.
The Tricky Tray was an annual event until 2019, when Covid-19 hit, Reier said. One was planned for 2020, but had to be cancelled because of the severity of the pandemic. The same held for the next three years.
“We lost a few members due to illnesses and now we’ve regained our membership and we were able to start it again,” she said.
Prizes were donated by local businesses and purchased with previous years’ earnings, Reier said. She said some of the prizes were donated pre-Covid.
Among the local businesses donating were Unity Bank, Uncle Tank’s, Summerfield Liquors, Bottle Republic, UFO Hair Salon, and the Flower Station, she said.
Reacti0on has been “great,” Reier said.
“It’s great; I mean, everybody’s super-happy,” she said. “We have a lot of the same people that we had at our last one, who followed us back. We still had all the same names. Even one of the tables, they actually won tickets at our 2019 Tricky Day for our next Tricky Tray and they’re here today.”
The money raised in the past has been used to re-do the fire department’s “ready room” with a new floor and fresh paint, she said.
Also on hand to help were members of Boy Scout Troops 156, 154 and 100. Troop 156 is sponsored by the MCFD, while Troop 1545 is sponsored by St. Matthias Church and Troop 100 is sponsored by Griggstown Reformed Church.
Tim Belloff, a lieutenant with the MVFD and Troop Leader for Troops 154 and 100, said it was very important for the public to see the Scouts in action.
“It’s a community service,” he said. “You know, it’s their time to be able to give back and help out, and it’s nice for the people to see the Scouts out doing things. We like to see the Scouts out in public, kind of boost numbers in the troops and everything.”
Alex Paff, MVFD’s Deputy Chief, said the Tricky Tray was a “blessing.”
“We don’t do as much fundraising as we used to do, just for lack of time,” he said. “We have so many calls, the town’s grown so large. So we have to keep up with the calls, but to have this one thing we do is so important. And they really come in clutch to be able to handle so much of this.”
“But it’s kind of grown to such a big thing now, maybe it (the delay) gave us time to you know, plan out, because the last one we had was at our fire station. We would not be able to do this over there.”
Here are some scenes from the event:
