We can’t even begin to tell you how thankful we are! Saturday, July 26, may very well be one of the best barbecues ever. If our estimations are correct, we had over 400 people for the 40th Annual Andover Fire Department Chicken BBQ dinner.

Days of preparation that week were needed for the dinner. Our fire family spent countless hours planning, prepping, cooking, cleaning, and being ready for everyone to join us. You can imagine how nervous we all were to see the rain forecasted.

We worried we would not have a good turnout and, in the end, have so much food left over. That was not the case. We ran out of beans, potato salad, dessert, and had just a few bags of chicken left. You all came! Our community came together to support their volunteers and we can’t be more thankful. Many of us left with huge smiles on our faces.

We added some live music this year to our night. We welcomed Kier Byrnes and his surprise guest, his daughter. Kier played “a high octane of chicken pickin’ electric guitar and accordion inspiration” music.

We were excited to present Chief Lefebvre his granite bench, to be placed on the East Station lawn. He and his wife Sharon, along with their daughters, have given so much of themselves over the past 44 years. Thank you Lefebvre family!

Congratulations to “LSB” for winning our 50/50 raffle and to Chet Adams for winning this year’s kayak raffle. Thank you all for taking your chance at winning.

We also were joined by five students from Merrimack Valley High School, earning community service hours. Each graduating student of MVHS must earn 24 hours of community service in order to graduate. Thank you to Garrett Barton, Wyatt Barton, Abby Bentzler, Olivia Bentzler, and Isabelle Tucker for helping to make our 40th Chicken BBQ a success!