The Coffee County Rescue Squad is inviting the community into their newly renovated building for the return of their annual BBQ Chicken Dinner fundraiser on April 4.

After holding the event annually for nearly a decade, it was indefinitely put on hold after a fire at their headquarters in Dec. of 2023. Now that the building has been refurbished, Rescue Squad Chief Neal Simmons says they’re looking forward to the event. “We like to see the citizens come out and meet us and see what we’ve got to offer the county, and if they have any questions or anything, we like to be able to talk to citizens and get them in our building,” he said.

Attendees will receive a dinner made up of a halfchicken BBQ plate with beans, Cole slaw, bread and a drink for $12 a person. The dinner will last from 11 a.m. until the Rescue Squad runs out of food.

The event came from members of the Rescue Squad wanting to come up with a fundraiser they could have to pay for equipment they needed in addition to paying bills and other expenses.

“The officers had looked at doing a fundraiser and something to raise money for the Rescue Squad to buy equipment and stuff with,” explained Simmons. “That’s just something we came up with doing. I had been on some fire departments that had done it over the years, so we just started it the first Sunday of April and have been doing it ever since.”

While the Rescue Squad has held some trainings at the new building, this will be the first community event that they will hold there. Simmons says that they have some more in the works as well.

“We’ve got some more stuff that we’re going to be working on after this, not fundraisers but more community training stuff that we’re going to try and start to get people in the building and just make them more aware of what we do for the county.”