Brownwood News – The Brownwood Fire Department received today a donation of two pallets of bottled water from the North Lake Community Church.  Pastor Ron Keener and church member Chip Barker headed up the effort which raised $1142 for the water.  The money raised was enough for seven pallets of water, which will also be donated to Fire Departments in Early, Bangs, May, Indian Creek, Rising Star, and Lake Brownwood Dam.

Pastor Keener explained how his church became involved: “Chip Barker and his wife Karen are a part of our church.  He has been doing Operation Firewater for a number of years, and when I saw a creative ministry opportunity, I jumped at it.  We as a church are very active and involved in the community.  So we came up with a goal of $1000, and our people contributed $1142.  So what we’ve done as a church, we want the Fire Departments in this area to be encouraged, to be supported, and to know that there are people who really do care.  And what we are seeing throughout the world is not a picture of Brown County.  We are encouragers.  We believe in what you are doing, and we cannot say Thank You enough to what they do, and all law enforcement.”

Chip Barker recounted the history of Operation Firewater:  “It’s been an ongoing process for the last six years.  We have steadily grown it, our first year was like 200 cases, and then we got it up to 1000 cases.  And it never could grow any further, until we met with Weston at Weakley-Watson Hardware.  Last year we raised 4700 cases.  Our goal this year was 5500 cases, and it looks like at the end of all this about 6000 cases of water.  Hopefully what we have done shows the camaraderie that we can gather among the folks in Brown County.  But it also shows the love of Christ, and it shows that we care.  We care about our everyday heroes, and that’s not just the firemen, but it goes to the Police Department, the Texas Ranger, the Texas Wildlife Department, EMS, the flight guys who fly the helicopters.  We want everybody to know that we care.”

Weston Jacobs explained his role at Weakley-Watson Hardware:  “We saw what Chip was doing, he has been doing this for a long time.  We know we have a community here in Brownwood that will step up to any call that’s ever been made.  That’s the thing I love about this town, that’s why we moved back here.  We have something like 38-40 pallets of water that’s already been spoken for, over the course of Operation Firewater, that’s going into the hands of folks that are going to need it and use it.”

Brownwood Fire Chief Eric Hicks expressed his appreciation:  “This is definitely a godsend to us.  Obviously it’s hot out there, and a lot of brush fires this time of year, so it’s definitely a blessing for our personnel this time of year.”