Skip to content

VIDEO: Porsche club raises over $7,000 for Ucluelet Fire Brigade

“ They just love us up here and we love them.”

A new, potentially life-saving, firefighting tool is on its way to the Ucluelet Volunteer Fire Brigade thanks to the generosity of Porsche loving visitors.

The Porsche Club of America’s Vancouver Island Chapter was in town from May 24-27 and raised over $7,100 for the brigade during their visit.

“These guys are such a great support for the fire brigade. They’re an unbelievable group of people,” said Ucluelet Fire Chief Ted Eeftink. “They just love us up here and we love them.”

Eeftink said the $7,100 does not account for additional credit card donations and estimated that the final sum would be around $8,300, enough to cover the cost of a new thermal imaging camera for the brigade’s rescue truck.

“If there’s a house fire or any type of fire, once we extinguish it, we can go in there [with the camera] and find hot areas that we can’t see with the naked eye,” he said. “This camera picks up all the hot spots so we’re not coming back to put another fire out. It’s a critical piece of equipment.”

It was the ninth annual visit the Porsche club has made to Ucluelet and they filled their time racing around Long Beach Airport, hosting a pancake breakfast at Black Rock Resort and Show and Shine at the Whiskey Dock before parading through town on their final day.

The club chapter’s past president Brad Blaney said the group’s annual visit to Ucluelet is a popular highlight.

“It’s such a fine community. Everybody works with us. It’s a good give and take place,” he said. “Scenic, wonderful people, it’s a nice drive in; all the good things. It’s just good, laid back, fun.”

He said the club feels well-supported by Ucluelet’s district office and noted that there’s never a lack of local hands willing to help out.

“Before I got here, representatives from the community were already here setting up barricades for us and they’re allowing us to use the [Whiskey Dock] pier for our car show,” he said.

He added the club’s annual visit to Ucluelet lures Porsche owners from other areas like Alberta, Washington State, and Oregon.

“We attract lots of people,” he said. “Everybody is having a great time. [There’s been] compliments one after another. All the people in the club, and from other clubs off the Island, have a great time and they come back year after year.”



Andrew Bailey

About the Author: Andrew Bailey

I arrived at the Westerly News as a reporter and photographer in January 2012.
Read more