​Civil Air Patrol Volunteers-Pancakes, Cider, & Wreaths, Oh My!

Hickory, PA — Members of all ages from Squadron’s 601 & 602 recently spent a weekend volunteering their time and talents at the 33rd Annual Hickory Apple Festival’s Pancake Breakfast in Hickory, PA. The festival is held as a fundraiser to support the Mt. Pleasant Township Fire Department.

Hundreds of people travel to Hickory every year to participate in the many events, enjoy homemade foods like fresh baked bread and apple pie, and to buy handcrafted crafts of all sorts during the first weekend of October. Many also enjoy the well-known “Pancake Breakfast” offered each morning with fresh coffee, local cider, pancakes, eggs, and sausage. The event, run by the Hickory Lions Club, has grown as has the need for additional volunteers and Washington Composite Squadron 601 with the assistance of Allegheny Composite Squadron 602 was happy to recognize and fill that need.

In exchange for the many hours of serving food, stocking condiments, wiping sticky tables, and hauling trash the festival offers the squadron a prime place not only for recruiting, but for the Wreaths Across America fundraiser as well. For more information or to locate a squadron near you, please email group1pao@gmail.com.

Civil Air Patrol, the longtime all-volunteer U.S. Air Force auxiliary, is the newest member of the Air Force’s Total Force, which consists of regular Air Force, Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, along with Air Force retired military and civilian employees. CAP, in its Total Force role, operates a fleet of 550 aircraft and performs about 90 percent of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center and is credited by the AFRCC with saving an average of 78 lives annually. Civil Air Patrol’s 56,000 members nationwide also perform homeland security, disaster relief and drug interdiction missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. Its members additionally play a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to more than 24,000 young people currently participating in the CAP cadet program. Performing missions for America for the past 75 years, CAP received the Congressional Gold Medal in 2014 in honor of the heroic efforts of its World War II veterans. CAP also participates in Wreaths Across America, an initiative to remember, honor and teach about the sacrifices of U.S. military veterans. Visit www.capvolunteernow.com for more information.