Real men wear pink at Dowell Fire Department

You mean there's even more to the Dowell Fire Department than the best slow-cooked pork steaks on earth at this Saturday's 24th annual Dowell Fire Department dinner and auction?

A lot more!

How about an all-volunteer department of 15 that takes a shoestring budget of $12,000 a year and turns it into one of the most agile and well-equipped departments in Southern Illinois.

The team is responsive. The equipment is up-to-date and well maintained.

After knocking down a fully involved house fire or helping Du Quoin on a mutual aid call the firefighters have no problem pulling on pink T-shirts with a special Dowell Fire Department breast cancer awareness logo and helping a good cause.

Firemen will be wearing the shirts Saturday as they serve up BBQ pork steaks, chips, baked beans, cole slaw, dessert and a drink all for only $7. They will be selling the cancer awareness shirts to townspeople and friends for $20 with all of the proceeds going to the Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation and its fight against breast cancer.

The dinner is from 4-7 p.m. and the auction begins at 7 p.m. with dozens of great live auction items. You can bid on an autographed Ozzie Smith baseball or a Cancun vacation or tickets to Holiday World or Six Flags or the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. The list goes on ad on. You can buy raffle tickets for a Remington 870 Express shotgun or $300 cash.

The commitment of this department runs deep. They provide automatic mutual aid to the Du Quoin Fire Department. Twice a year (during the time changes), firefighters go door-to-door and offer homeowners free batteries for their smoke detectors. They will change the batteries, have provided dozens of free smoke detectors to homes that didn't have them, and will help install them if you have absolutely no help in doing that.

This past year, the department equipped the town's storm siren with a wireless remote so firefighters no longer have to go to the station to sound the warning.

They have installed air pack jump seats in the back of their first response accident and brush truck.

In recent years they have upgraded their bunker gear and this year purchased a new set of boots.

As part of national Fire Prevention Week, they will have plenty of giveaways for the kids including coloring books.

You can sense the great history of the Dowell Fire Department in the collection of vintage helmets on top of the bunker gear rack alongside the new helmets.

Saturday's event is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the group of dedicated volunteers who work alongside Du Quoin and Tamaroa firefighters every day to protect us.

If you need reasons to come, here they are and they are simple:

The best pork steaks on earth, slow-cooked over charcoal and seasoned wood in the pavilion's open pit for between two and three hours, then steamed in barbecue sauce until the start of serving at 4 p.m. Serving lasts until 7 p.m. The biggest problem is in serving them because they are so tender they fall apart.

This is an event that needs to be supported and you won't be disappointed.