North Myrtle Beach Rescue Squad raring for annual fish fry

Just like a list of important fire safety reminders, a local rescue squad’s annual community afternoon of dining never gets old.

The North Myrtle Beach Rescue Squad, based on Sixth Avenue North, will have its 57th annual Fish Fry and Barbecue fundraiser, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday at Ocean Drive Elementary School, 901 11th Ave. N., North Myrtle Beach, for $10 all you can eat, with takeout also available. The menu will include “Rescue Hand Battered” fried fish and “Nana’s” homemade 105-year-old recipe of cole slaw.

This outing, with local musicians taking turns to entertain, also will double as a benefit for Lowcountry Food Bank, which serves a large radius from its home base in Charleston, so everyone’s asked to being a nonperishable item for relay to help people across Horry County.

Kip Mitchell, a web content specialist by day who is the rescue squad’s spokesman and a member for about 17 years, spoke about how this annual fish fry continues growing, to help ensure a vital service that also reaches into Little River, Longs and Briarcliffe Acres.

Question | How did this partnership to promote the work of the Lowcountry Food Bank take foot for the 2015 fish fry?

Answer | We recognize the need in the community, especially in the holiday season, and with the flooding this month, the idea came up to do a food drive with the fish fry. ... There are people in our area who don’t have a can of pork and beans to eat. ... If everybody brings a can of food, or a box of noodles or something, we’d have 2,000 pounds of food, which would be enough to some families for quite a long time.

Q. | How long has the whole slate of entertainment been an amenity for this fry?

A. | We started this about three years ago. We have Charity Elise Hillegass, knights from Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament, Opus Strings – a violin duet – and Dr. Joe Moyer, a local allergist who’s a real doctor, who graduated from Georgetown University and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Dr. Joe’s a vocalist, guitarist, and he plays other string instruments. Opus Strings is mostly classical and Celtic music, and the other entertainers do a range from country to pop.

Q. | How special is having Charity lend her voice this Saturday?

A. | Last year was the first year she joined us, and she sang an opera aria. People were on their feet. She hits every note. She has an amazing range of octaves, and she can sing anything from opera to pop. She’s only 12 years old.

Q. | Has the fish fry always been an autumn tradition?

A. | It has always been on the last Saturday in October, and this year’s being on Halloween, that’s why we’re having two costume contests, with two age categories: 3-8 and 9-13.

Q. | Is this the rescue squad’s major fundraiser every year?

A. | This is. ... There was a guy named Melvin Bellamy, who was later a police chief of North Myrtle Beach when the city was formed. He and a couple of other businessmen formed the Crescent Beach Rescue Squad in 1958, and they started having the fish fry to raise money. I think it was $200 to buy a used Packard hearse, and the mayor of Atlantic Beach paid to have the hearse painted red. ...

The fish fry has always been in existence, but it didn’t become a major event until about 15 years ago, when a couple started coordinating it. They’re in their 70s – Ed and Joan Vaitis, and both of them still do most of the CPR classes. ...

Every year, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger, ... and everybody does it because they enjoy doing it.

Q. | How many people make up the North Myrtle Beach Rescue Squad?

A. | About 60 volunteers – men and women, and they range in age from 18 years old all the way up into the 70s.

Q. | How special and important is that camaraderie with, and presence in, the community, even when not called in an emergency?

A. | We’re kind of like a family. When one member has a problem, everybody is there to help. We go to a lot of the community activities. ... We do medical standbys at the Myrtle Beach Marathon and the North Myrtle Beach High School football games. We teach hundreds of people CPR every year, and if there is a church or nonprofit involved with that, we don’t charge a fee for us to come and teach the class. All the participants have to do is pay the $5 for their American Heart Association card.

At least once a week, some weeks two or three times, at the different homeowners’ associations, or churches and day care centers, we go out and teach CPR.

We’re hopeful that no one ever needs to use it, but you never know when you’ll be standing in line at Kroger, and somebody goes into cardiac arrest. The more people who know what to do, the better: They can react and save a life. ... It’s about being prepared. I mean, why do moms carry Band-Aids in their pocketbook? In case their kid falls and scrapes a knee. I know moms who carry a whole drugstore in their pocketbook.

This story was originally published October 25, 2015 at 8:00 AM with the headline "North Myrtle Beach Rescue Squad raring for annual fish fry."