Festival donates money, supplies to vandalized fire department

Members of a local cycling festival donated the money to the department after their fire truck was stolen and set on fire last month

January 22, 2014 03:05 AM

Tulsa World

AVANT, Okla. — Members of a local cycling festival donated $6,000 in money and medical supplies Tuesday to a rural fire department that was vandalized last month.

Saint Francis Tulsa Tough Executive Director Malcolm McCollam presented the $1,000 check and $5,000 worth of supplies and equipment to Avant Volunteer Fire Chief Gene Atkins at Lee’s Bicycles in Tulsa.

“It is unbelievably awesome for Tulsa Tough to step up and do this,” Atkins said.

On Dec. 4, a 2008 Ford pickup that Avant firefighters used for fire suppression and emergency medical response was stolen and burned on a county road about five miles south of town.

The Fire Department also was burglarized and ransacked, causing an estimated $120,000 in damage.

“I’m been the chief for three years,” Atkins said. “It was probably the most devastating thing that I’ve ever witnessed. I’ve seen other departments get robbed.

“But for somebody to blatantly take a truck and then burn it ... this truck was so special to our department. Our past chief, Dale Soule, fought for that truck for three years.”

Soule died of a heart attack in 2008, Atkins said.

To make up for the torched vehicle, the Avant fire volunteers are rebuilding a Ford 350 truck given to them by the Collinsville Rural Fire Department. The Morgan’s Corner Fire Department donated an older-model, three-quarter-ton Chevrolet truck that Avant is using now, Atkins said.

This will mark the ninth year for Saint Francis Tulsa Tough, a three-day cycling festival scheduled June 6-8 in Tulsa.

The town of Avant been a key supporter of the event since its inception. The Fire Department hosts a rest stop for riders on the Sunday Gran Fondo ride, whose route goes through the Osage County community.

“They host the rest stop,” McCollam said. “They are enthusiastic. They are energetic. They greet all our riders. Not only do they do that, they feed our volunteers and take care of everybody.

“When we heard about what happened to their truck, we just had to get involved. It was the least we could do.”

In connection with the vandalism and the October burglary of an Avant church, Harvey Gene Eastwood, 20, was arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree burglary, larceny of an automobile and third-degree arson.

He pleaded guilty this month and was committed to a regimented inmate discipline program, records show.