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WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2020
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Getting ready for the reopening of Cast Iron Cafe, Elisha Nightingale puts sunflowers on each dining table. PHOTOS BY CATHY CHENEY / SPECIAL TO THE STATESMAN JOURNAL
Cafe
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help?’ People with checks (were) show-
ing their strong support. It was incred-
ible!”
That night the Nightingales sat down
and developed a new business strategy
and a new plan: Reopen Cast Iron Cafe.
They had been the underdog before, so
why should a little global pandemic stop
them now?
They needed to raise money to stock
food and supplies for day-to-day opera-
tional needs. Knowing they had the sup-
port of the community, they decided to
try a Facebook fundraiser to reach their
$5,000 goal. One day after launching
the campaign, they had raised over 75%.
It’s not just the food and inviting
atmosphere the Nightingales provide
that garners their community’s support.
It’s also because of who they are as peo-
ple. A fundraiser was also being spon-
sored for Annie Schächer, owner of Gear
Up, another local coffee shop, who had
recently been hospitalized and needed
financial support to help offset medical
Recruitment
Continued from Page 1A
their homes.
“There’s no opportunities to go out in
the community to recruit volunteers,”
Stayton Fire Chief Jack Carriger said.
The neighboring fire departments re-
ceived a three-year $680,000 grant
from FEMA to hire Andrews in 2019 to
bolster their ranks and retain current
volunteers.
Stayton has 45 volunteer firefighters
currently, down from 60 a few years ago,
despite call volume increasing to 1,200
from 800 three years ago.
It also has five full-time firefighters
on staff and tried to add three more with
a levy in the May election, but that mea-
sure was voted down. And it didn’t have
any new volunteers who went through
training this year.
Sublimity has 30 volunteer firefight-
ers, but its only paid firefighter is Hume.
It takes about six months to train new
volunteers.
“It’s just so important for people to
commit the time to do this,” Carriger
said.
Training new volunteer
firefighters
Normally when a volunteer signs up,
they would meet face-to-face with An-
drews and other department staff, then
go through in-person interviews before
they are approved to go into training.
That hasn’t been able to happen re-
cently.
“I was doing a lot of Zoom meetings
to chat with the candidates to get them
as far through the process as we could,”
Andrews said.
It then takes about six months to
train them, but one pool of volunteers
doesn’t need as much training.
Andrews figured one of his big push-
es for volunteers would be at a job fair at
Chemeketa in May.
Sublimity has a program where stu-
dents from Chemeketa studying fire sci-
ence to be paramedics can live at the
station rent free, receive training while
serving as volunteers and partial tuition
reimbursement, and Stayton was trying
to restart its similar program.
But with Chemeketa’s campus closed
During a training session, Cast Iron Cafe owner Joshua Nightingale stresses the
importance of sanitation.
costs. When the Nightingales heard the
news, they immediately stopped their
fundraiser and directed all of their traf-
fic to Gear Up's site. This kind of genuine
communal support helped ensure that
both parties met their goals.
With their money raised, the Night-
ingales also decided to make big cre-
ative changes. They scratched their
original “breakfast only” menu and
moved to lunch and dinner, offering
brunch only on the weekends.
They worked with Guerrero to add
even more flare to their menu, deciding
on a Texas BBQ style. Almost all of their
food is locally sourced. All their meats
come from the Mt Angel Meat Company
and Lonely Lane Farms and are cooked
on the iconic Traeger Grill. They have a
full bakery to make their own buns.
They have original seasoning. They
make their own barbecue sauces, their
blueberry chipotle is guaranteed to
make your mouth water.
And finally, as of July 8th, The Cast
Iron Cafe, thanks to the support of the
community and the perseverance of the
Nightingales, is open for business once
again.
But the NIghtingales may not be
done.
“I’m always looking forward, and
asking myself what’s next and why
not?," Joshua said. "Maybe another res-
taurant, perhaps a vineyard. Only time
will tell.”
since April, there has been little chance
to connect with those students.
“The student program right now,
their fire program is very limited,” An-
drews said. “They can only drill one or
two days a week. But they also lost their
opportunity to intern with Salem or
Marion County because of the COVID
situation.”
Increase in volunteers during
economic uncertainty
The recent interest in volunteering in
Sublimity is not unusual.
Hume said when he started in Sub-
limity 10 years ago during the Great Re-
cession, the department was in the mid-
dle of a spike in the number of volun-
teers.
With a record high unemployment
rate, more people are able to spend the
time to volunteer.
“We had several people who were un-
employed who volunteered here,” Hume
said. “They were here all the time. If you
think about it, if you have a bunch of
people hanging around because they
don’t have to go to a job or school, that
decreases your response time on calls.
“We see benefits from it.”
Carriger said Stayton has lost a few
firefighters since the pandemic hit, but
it was because of other situations in the
volunteers’ lives.
“I would not say it’s directly involved
in the COVID situation,” he said.
But finding more firefighters is key for
the departments to remain viable.
With events around Stayton and
Sublimity closed, Andrews has spent a
good deal of time building and main-
taining social media for the depart-
ments, something that was often ne-
glected.
And he’s updated the volunteer re-
tention programs, something that was
long overdue.
“He’s done a fantastic job and he’s
rolled with everything thrown at him
with COVID-19,” Hume said. “We
couldn’t be happier with the grant pro-
gram, in spite of all the stuff that’s hap-
pened.”
Bill Poehler covers Marion County for
the Statesman Journal. Contact him at
bpoehler@statesmanjournal.com
or
Twitter.com/bpoehler
Support local journalism by sub-
scribing to the Statesman Journal.
Stayton Fire District Chief Jack Carriger, center, speaks with others about the
process that will happen during a live fire training exercise on N. Gardner Ave.,
on Saturday, April 11, 2015, in Stayton. BRENT DRINKUT/STATESMAN JOURNAL
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