91-year-old donates $500,000 to rural volunteer fire department in Missouri
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CALHOUN, Missouri (KMBC) — Neighbors helping neighbors is the motto of the Calhoun Volunteer Fire Department. Mark Hardin brought that mindset to the table when he started as Fire Chief back in December of 2021.
“There’s a sense of pride and community,” Hardin said. “It’s not just one person. It’s all of us.”
But when he started, it was a department of just one, with old gear and trucks that didn’t run.
“It needed a lot of work,” he said. “Not many of the trucks were in operation. Not many of them ran. Only one ran at the time.”
So, Hardin opened the doors to the community. He posted on Facebook, hosted trainings almost weekly, and grew his department to where it is now – with 28 volunteer firefighters.
The department made repairs to the old trucks and has pride in the work that they do.
“We’re a very active and very aggressive fire department. We’re not a department that stands back,” he said.
The only thing holding them back was a small budget, until recently.
“Small-town people know how to handle a few dollars,” longtime resident Sam Sloan said.
Sam Sloan has lived in Henry County since 1960. In that time, he’s invested a lot in the community. At 91 years old, he still is.
“I’m making a donation to the fire department. I’ve been planning to for several years,” Sloan said. “It’s half a million dollars and a half a million dollars is a pretty good donation.”
Sloan is donating $500,000 to Hardin and the volunteer fire department in Calhoun.
“Never in a million years would I ever expect anything like that for a rural fire department,” Hardin said. “In March of this year, at the end of our first quarter, we had $169 left in our bank account.”
Hardin said they plan to use the money to get three firetrucks, new equipment, and new gear for every volunteer at the department. Currently, the gear they use is from the 80s and 90s.
“The first thing that we’re going to replace is our tanker pumper. Our tanker pumper has been patched together about 17 times in the last year I think I welded on that thing,” Hardin said. “Every one of our firefighters, from head to toe, we’re going to be fitted next Monday for new gear.”
Sloan said he’s happy with his donation and the way the department is already putting it to good use.
“I’m getting a lot of credit for it, but I don’t know how to fix one of them things. But I know how to make a dollar and there’s a difference there,” Sloan said.
The donation is a big difference and a big help for his neighbors in Henry County.
“We’re going to help our neighbors. We’re going to pass that along,” Hardin said.
As for their old gear, they plan to donate them to other rural volunteer departments in need of a little help.
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