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The goal is to create a natural amphitheater, something all of Buckingham County can benefit from. And now, members of the Buckingham County Firefighters Association (BCFA) have broke ground on the project, starting construction. The 28-acre park is in the early phases, with the hope they can finish before winter. 

BCFA President and Chief of Toga Volunteer Fire Department Dr. Brian Bates is optimistic about the park’s potential. 

“The sky’s the limit,” Dr. Bates said. “I think we really are scratching the surface. We’re not exactly sure what the potential is. We know it’s probably pretty significant potential, because other than school properties, there’s really no other venue like this in the county.”

The venue’s size – large enough to hold 4,800 people with the parking capacity for 1,100 cars – is emphasized by its concave shape, forming a natural amphitheater with the track for the BCFA’s tractor pull being located in the valley at the center with seating on the sides. The size of the site makes it ideal for a multitude of potential future events, but the annual tractor pull is undoubtedly the star of the show.

“We did one right before the pandemic,” Dr. Bates said of the pull, “missed a year for the pandemic and then picked up again. And it is a really big event; it does generate good revenue for the fire departments. And so we saw the opportunity to develop this event park as a way to take the success of the tractor pull, put it in a spot that the fire departments could own through its association, and then we could do all kinds of other functions, hopefully, as interest develops.”

A fundraising opportunity 

The fundraising opportunity presented by the tractor pull and other potential future events is vital to the BCFA, as it would mean requesting less funding from the county. According to Dr. Bates, this “ends up becoming a benefit for the taxpayer and the community” by lessening the pressure on Buckingham County. 

The event park’s benefit to the community would be significant, according to Dr. Bates. “It’s a way to hopefully give people a sense of place where they can come and be part of the community,” he said. 

One roadblock the BCFA is overcoming in their goal to make a place for the community to come together is ensuring that more of the community knows who they are and what they do, Dr. Bates said. 

“We do have a Facebook page that gets decent traffic, but most of that traffic centers around the tractor pull event. So there’s probably a small percentage of people that are aware that there is a Firefighters Association. We’re hoping to amplify that.”

Firefighters Association has plans for the future 

One way they are amplifying the public’s knowledge is via their mailing list for fundraising to complete the third phase of construction on the event park. Community fundraising is necessary for the BCFA to complete the project, and Dr. Bates says that in the three weeks since the mailings were sent out they have been successful.

Financial support, according to Dr. Bates, is something the Buckingham County community can do to help support the BCFA in their goals of completing the event park. “That’s what we need to finish construction,” he said. “They can do that by reaching out to any of the association leadership and we can have a conversation about what they can do to help us financially.”

And when it’s completed? “Once we have the thing open,” Dr. Bates said, “we need the community to come out and support it. Come to an event!”

While there’s still some time until the event park will be completed, the BCFA is optimistic about the park’s potential, both to fundraise for their volunteer firefighting efforts, and for the positive impact they hope it will have on the Buckingham County community as a whole.