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The Fraser River Valley Lions Club prepares the fridge to sit on the pond for the duration of the fundraiser.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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An East Grand Fire crew attaches the refrigerator to the firetruck with rope.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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An East Grand Fire crew attaches the refrigerator to the firetruck with rope.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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An East Grand Fire crew attaches the refrigerator to the firetruck with rope.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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An East Grand Fire crew attaches the refrigerator to the firetruck with rope.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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Any money collected during the fundraiser will be split 50/50 between the winning bet and Mountain Family Center.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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The public can support the fundraiser by betting on when the fridge will fall through the ice.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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East Grand Fire Chief Todd Holzwarth estimated the ice is about a foot thick this time of year.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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The fridge will remain on the pond until it breaks through the ice and sinks.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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Middle Park High School students in Echo Zoyiopoulos’ art class decorated the fridge before it was put out on the pond.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
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East Grand Fire set the fridge in the middle of the pond, about 80 feet from the road. Signs around the pond warn the public not to go out onto the ice.
McKenna Harford / mharford@skyhinews.com
A local nonprofit is betting that a painted refrigerator wearing a duck inner tube is attention-grabbing enough to raise money and awareness for food insecurity in Grand County.
The Fraser River Valley Lions Club partnered with Mountain Family Center to host the “Drop Hunger” fundraiser, which involves putting a refrigerator on a frozen pond and collecting bets about when it will fall through the ice.
Whoever gets closest to the actual time the fridge falls, down to the minute, will win half of the betting pot, while the other half will go to Mountain Family Center’s food programs, such as the food pantry and totes program.
On Thursday, East Grand Fire, the Lions Club and representatives of Mountain Family Center gathered at the Lions Ponds in Fraser, next to Safeway, to move the fridge onto the pond.
A fire crew tied the fridge to a firetruck’s ladder using rope and lifted it over the pond before gently setting it on the ice.
East Grand Fire Chief Todd Holzwarth estimated the fridge is about 80 feet out from the road and sitting on a roughly foot-thick layer of ice.
The refrigerator was painted by Middle Park High School students in Echo Zoyiopoulos’ art class and touches on the town of Fraser’s “Leaving Planet Earth” motto.
Interested gamblers can make bets at Mountain Family Center or at the Grand Foundation, as well as online, starting this week. The Lions Club will also have pop-up locations where the public can place bets.