Bob and Mary Harvey celebrated a milestone this week as the 25th anniversary of AFS Service, their full service auto repair shop rolled by.
Bob started the business in 1985 and has come a long way from a three-man shop at the end of the road. The Harvey’s AFS Service now occupies a state-of the-art facility on Hwy. 15 just past Alonzo Park. They have six employees and plenty of work.
The Harveys are thankful for their success, and feel grateful that the community has always been good to them. So, they thought, this silver anniversary, they would give their anniversary present to the community.
What to do? It was an easy choice.
“Between my brother and parents we’ve called 911 four times in the past several years. The First Responders came running, no matter what time of the day or night it was,” said Bob.
“They are indispensible,” said Mary. She says that images of the New York Twin Towers stay with her, when the fire fighters and emergency personnel ran toward the towers and everyone else was running away. “That’s what these special people are made of. They are the unsung heroes in all our communities. Add the fact that these are volunteer positions and it is really impressive.”
Mary is the shop bookkeeper. Last week she tallied all receipts and drew a check out that totaled 10 percent of gross sales in the business. This was donated to the First Responders.
During their anniversary open house, they invited the First Responders to host a brat fry at their shop, and brought in the popular Maddog and Merrill Grillin’ Buddies from New London.
This effort combined with the Harvey’s donation should purchase a new radio for the First Responders.
Karl Arps, secretary for the Hortonville First Responders explains that in January of this year a federal mandate from the FCC stated that all First Responder radios must go to narrow band frequency effective in 2012. The Responders need to purchase 15 radios and they cost anywhere from $1,500 to $2,000 each.
“Outagamie County hasn’t decided which radios they want us to purchase yet, but once they do we need to start purchasing them. We’re very fortunate to have the Harvey’s support our efforts. We get a small budget from the Village of Hortonville, the Townships of Hortonia and Liberty, but these radios are over and above our budget,” said Arps.
We had a small amount of money saved for defibulators and have now switched that account to fund the radios, which is now our first priority. Hortonville First Responders has nine defibulators at present, and First Responders carry them in their cars to access them at any time.
For more information or to help out the First Responders, contact Karl Arps at 920-359-0437 or First Responder Director Brent Servin at 920-850-8307.