ELIZABETH TOWNSHIP— Rain didn’t stop the Elizabeth Township Volunteer Fire Department from putting on its third community fun day on Saturday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church.

Typically, the event is held outdoors, but it was moved inside the church’s fellowship hall due to weather.

“It went great,” Elizabeth Township Fire Chief Jerry Massie said. “Multiple agencies from throughout the county helped us out and we had somewhere between 350 and 400 people coming and going throughout the day.”

The day included kids activities such as face painting and mini train rides and an inflatable bouncy house that were available during rain breaks, picnic style food served, inner-department and countywide fire department gear-donning competitions for whomever could get dressed in their fire gear the fastest and music by Ironton native Brandon Whitt, who has won multiple awards including the WTCR Country Showdown and has played at the CMA Festival in Nashville, Tennessee.

Brandon Massie took home the prize for the inner-department competition, while Justin Rice from the South Point Volunteer Fire Department won the countywide competition.

“We do this to show support back to the community for supporting us,” Brandon Massie said. “We do various fundraisers throughout the year to put this on. No department money or taxpayer money is used.”

Besides other local fire departments on hand for the competition and to help out, the Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office, the Ohio University Southern Child Development Center and the Air Evac Lifeteam also showed their support.

“It was a really good time,” Jerry Massie said. “A lot of fun.”