By: Dan Sokil

After 60 years, the numbers tell one story: seven vehicles, 35 or so active members, 78 calls responded to last year and 72 the year before.

But talk to members of the North Penn Goodwill Service and they'll tell you another story, about how their members have worked day and night for 60 years now, helping make life just a little easier for firefighters and fire victims across the area.

"Basically we're an emergency canteen unit, and we primarily service Montgomery, Bucks, Lehigh, Chester and Berks counties, so we get around," said Goodwill President Joseph Rausch.

What they do when they get around is very similar to what a group of Souderton firefighters did on that first night in March 1949: Help workers at the scenes of emergencies and the victims.

"We have three primary canteens and two shelter trucks, which have restrooms on them, and facilities to wash your hands, and are heated so people can sit inside and get out of the cold, rain, snow or whatever," Rausch said.


"The canteens are basically all set up the same. They're used for serving our food: we have microwaves, refrigerators, grills, stoves, hot coffee urns, they're basically set up just like a kitchen," he said.

On that first chilly night in 1949, a group of firefighters responded to a fire call along Route 113 near Harleysville, and started talking afterward about the need for a canteen service to help out on those cold nights, according to a Goodwill history provided by group Secretary Abram Diehl.

"Our first call was answered on July 15, 1949, even though the canteen unit had not received their license tag," the history relates.

"On that call, the unit was driven by Chief Paul Hunsberger (of the) Souderton Police Department, so that no problems would be encountered. This first unit was admittedly quite spartan — during the winter, water froze on the floor inside the bus and members thought they should wear ice skates to facilitate serving," reads the history.





The current fleet is a far cry from that first unit, a school bus built in 1934 and leased from Hagey's Transportation Services.

Today the Goodwill fleet numbers seven vehicles: four canteen trucks, two shelters and a 2006 GMC van, all of which see plenty of use.

"We're not a crew that has to get out of the door right away, because it takes some time to load the trucks up, to get all of the stuff we need out of the freezers, and to get loaded up and ready to go usually takes about 30 to 40 minutes on a call," Rausch said.

"Most of our members go out on bigger calls, and they can be there

anywhere from six hours to two days long. For the big Conshohocken fire last year, we had people down there for almost a week," he said.

The first major call the Goodwill company dealt with happened in 1955, providing canteen service to police, firefighters and rescue workers helping to dig out from flooding from Upper Black Eddy to Croyden along the Delaware River.

"We used to have full uniforms that we even wore on calls. In some of the old pictures they have white coveralls on, it's a full regular uniform like something police officers would wear, but we don't do that anymore," Diehl said.

The second major test for North Penn Goodwill came in 1972, when the Schuylkill River overflowed its banks and Goodwill workers helped out 24 hours a day for 10 days in the Pottstown area.

"One of my biggest calls was for a (June 1982) K-Mart fire down in Levittown. We were there for almost a week, and when we're at a site that long we leave the trucks there and just shuttle manpower back and forth, because once the canteens are committed, they're committed," Rausch said.

All Goodwill members are volunteers, and many are also members of local fire companies; for instance, Rausch serves the Telford Fire Company.


"I got involved when I heard about it from another firefighter. We were out on a barn fire one night in below-zero temperatures and Goodwill was there," he remembered.

"I really liked the hot coffee and egg sandwiches, and said, 'I can help those guys,' so that's how I got started back in 1980," Rausch said.

No big celebrations are planned to celebrate the 60th anniversary, just the same hard work they do year after year: Goodwill responded to 78 calls in 2008, 72 in 2007, 94 in 2006, 116 in 2005 and 83 in 2004.

"The first and third Monday of every month are our work nights, where people come store things and make sure our supplies are all ready, and our regular meetings are on the last Thursday of every month," Diehl said.

Volunteer members are always appreciated, as are donations of food or hours spent working at Goodwill's warehouse, located at 120 East Church Street in Souderton.

"We're getting to be kind of an older group, which wasn't always the case, so we could certainly use some younger or even middle-aged members, but anybody who's willing to volunteer is welcome," Diehl said.

For more information, call (215) 723-9579.