 The community came together on Sunday in one local township to show support for its fire department during an open house event. Clayton Castle has the report from Mission Township. From fighting fires to meeting the people, the Mission Township Fire Department opened its doors on Sunday to the community, meeting the people they serve and hopefully raise a few bucks. We have an open house every year. It's a pancake breakfast that we serve free to our community for all the community support that they give us. We've got just an awesome community support here and this is one way for us to give back in another way. The open house featured the fire and EMS trucks, a tour of the firehouse and even a special raffle. Same time we do a gun raffle every year and this way here we can maybe somebody can win a free gun and we can raise a few funds also. The chief says that while not a whole lot of money is raised, the potential is there to raise more funds through other events throughout the year. We sell 350 tickets for the two guns that we give away and it's $10 a ticket. So we have the potential of raising $3,500 and so I mean we usually come out a couple thousand dollars and then also the auxiliary sometimes will give us a check at this fundraiser also that from funds that they've raised for us and that's usually anywhere from $2,000 to $2,500. We also have an annual fire fair which is another fundraiser that we have and we have a lot of people show up for that for our support and then we do the raffle prize tickets at that one also. It's more than just money though, it's also about the community. The community here is behind this fire department 110 percent. Everybody you talk to supports this fire department and all the members are here. Currently over 800 people are being served by the Mission Township Fire Department. Reporting in Mission Township Clayton Castle, Lakeland is. And the recent stretch of dry weather has many area forests under a moderate chance for wildfire. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.