STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
The 38th annual Firefighters’ Ball will be held Saturday, Nov. 18, at the Limelight Hotel in Ketchum.
Doors will open at 7 p.m. and dance music by Pixie and the Partygrass Boys will start at 8 p.m. The Salt Lake City band, which features five musicians on ukulele, fiddle, upright bass, mandolin and guitar, has performed at Ketch’em Alive.
Tickets are $20, available online at www.ksvva.org, at Atkinsons’ Market in Ketchum. They also will be available at the door, if any are left by the night of the party.
The party is capped at 400.
“This year’s theme is denim and lace, which is some kind of hideous nightmare of Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears,” said Lara McLean, a lieutenant and paramedic with the Ketchum Fire Department. “You won’t see me in either. But it is a fun seeing what everybody wears from the wing suits of the 1970s to T-shirts from the 90s. You see some real funny stuff.”
This is the first time for the Firefighters Ball at the Limelight. The hotel is offering reduced room rates to those who don’t want to drive home to Hailey or Bellevue after the party’s over.
The Sun Valley and Ketchum fire departments made 1,177 calls during 2016. Of those, 446 were fire calls and 731 were emergency medical and rescue calls.
This is the only fundraiser that directly benefits the two departments.
Funds from last year’s ball helped firefighters develop plans for a new permanent training facility. This year’s funds will provide advanced firefighting Emergency Medical Technician and technical rescue training. It will support the Victim Relief Fund, which helps fire victims with food, clothing and housing needs. It will purchase new equipment to handle wildland fires, structure fires, motor vehicle accidents, avalanches and backcountry rescues.
And it will equip firefighters—many of whom are volunteer--with protective clothing and tools.
“We’re just thanking the community that we can pay for things like thse,” said McLean.