Garrett Yager and Rick Swanson, organizers of the Blooming Benjamins event, eagerly ready for the event. P-J photo by Owen Reed

KENNEDY – Volunteers at the Kennedy Fire Department are gearing up for a spring event to bring in some funding for the department.

Though similar in structure to the department’s yearly Thanksgiving event, this event will instead see an even more valuable prize given away, cold hard cash.

The Blooming Benjamins event will be taking place on Saturday, April 25, and will begin at 7 p.m. Department member Rick Swanson stated that the event was based off of the fall event that the organization hosts each year, with slight alterations for the spring. While turkeys are typically given away at the event in the fall, this event will the organizers giving away money to some lucky guests.

“We wanted to try something in the spring, and some Fire Departments do like ham parties. What we’re going to do, since it’s spring and everything is blooming, we’re going to do Blooming Benjamins,” said Swanson. “Basically instead of a bird, instead of turkey, we’re giving away $100 bills, Bejamins, Ben Franklins. So it should be a pretty good time.”

In addition to this, the department will also be doing the traditional Spring meat Raffle during this time, which offers the chance for six guests to take home some prizes. The first place winner will be awarded $1,000 cash, third place will get $500 cash, fifth gets $350, and sixth gets $150. Second and fourth place will not be awarded cash, but will certainly not send the winners home empty handed. Second place will award 30 pounds of burger, 10 pounds of chicken breasts, 10 pounds of chicken thighs, 10 pounds of fresh sausage, 10 pounds of bacon, 10 pounds of boneless pork chops, and 20 pounds of strip steaks. Fourth place will offer 20 pounds of burger, 5 pounds of chicken breasts, 5 pounds of chicken thighs, 5 pounds of fresh sausage, 5 pounds of bacon, 5 pounds of boneless pork chops, and 10 pounds of strip steaks.

“We will also have a number of gift cards to be given away during the evening. The final drawing for our Spring Meat and Cash drawing will also be held that evening,” said Swanson. “Doors open at 6:30 p.m.”

While a small department, Swanson stated that the group is overjoyed to put on such community events, with more to be held in the near future as well. One of these future events will be the organization’s traditional boot drive. This drive is set to occur on May 23 this year at the four-corners in Kennedy, and will see numerous members of the department collecting donations in boots.