On Monday December 8, 2008 the members of the New Sharon Vol. Fire Co.#1, of Deptford Township, New Jersey gathered together on Delsea Drive and watched in horror has our firehouse and 95% of its contents were destroyed by a devastating fire, we watched has 98 years of tradition, history and service to our community crumbled right in front of our eyes. We did have one aerial piece of apparatus survive the fire, only due to the fact that it was out having warranty work done on it the day of the fire, it is now housed at our M.U.A. building, two other pieces of apparatus were destroyed, a 1992 E-One pumper and a 1978 Ford brush truck.

We did have insurance to protect us in the event of something like this happening, but now 16 months after that devastating night we are once again devastated, this time by a member we called family, a friend and who we trusted, he managed to embezzle over a half a million dollars, he left us with nothing, we are in the process of applying for federal grants to help us rebuild, even when the grants come available we still have no money to furnish the building or for operating expenses.

We have taken steps in our bylaws so that something like this can never happen again, we are trying to get our story out nationwide so other volunteer organizations can take precautions to prevent such an event from taken place within their organization.

At this time we are turning to you and asking for your help in getting us back to a fully functional fire station so we can serve our community like our members before us have done, if you would like to make a tax deductible donation to our non-profit volunteer fire station we thank you.

Respectfully submitted by the membership of the New Sharon Vol. Fire Co.#1,

New Sharon Vol. Fire Co.#1

P.O. Box 5194

Deptford, New Jersey

08096