2025 SPAAMFAA Convention Report

By Bob Romig, Chairman

2025 Winter Convention

Hosted by FABB

March 4-8, 2025

I am writing this report to thank everyone who attended the Winter Convention here in Florida. The weather was great, the attendance was OK, we had about 200 folks attend either as guests for the convention, vendors or apparatus owners who brought their apparatus to be judged.

A big thank you goes out to my Co- Chairman, Richard “Bo” Borwegen who helped me put this show together.  Also, to all the folks that helped set up things, worked the tables in the registration room, the apparatus judges, the vendors who showed up and to the apparatus owners that brought their apparatus to the show. Also, a big thank you to the folks at Wyndham-Celebration for all their extra work in making things work for us.  Having hotel staff that will work closely with you and get things done is a big help. Thanks to Doug Riddle and his son for setting up the muster area and to our judges, Steve Austin; Mike Trembley and Jim Van Druen. Thanks to Dawson Blackmore for his first aid duties and making sure security was in place each night and helping me with the memorial program for the banquet, and to our FABB Safety guys, Ron Petrillo and Howard Peiffer.

We had about 20-30 vendors spread out in the ballroom, and it looked like they had a pretty good gathering from time to time. Thanks to Jim Slowiak for setting this up for us. We had a great turnout of apparatus for our show. Lots of hand/horse drawn stuff this time.

Here is a list of the winners of different categories that we had on the field on Saturday.

Longest distance driven out of state – Mike Currant – Dundalk, Md; 1986 Ranger Rescue 913 miles

Longest distance transported out of state – Steve Goldsmith -Surrey, NH; 1930 Model A Ford – 1328 miles

Longest distance driven in state – Mike Heeder – Starke, FL; 1988 Pierce Lance Ladder – 140 miles

Longest distance transported in state – Tim Sullivan – Southwest Ranches, Fl; 1934 Ahrens Fox owned by Frank Sullivan (his dad) 228 miles

Best appearing Apparatus/vehicle – 1^st place - 1925 & older – John Morris, 1925 Seagrave – ex – Tampa, Fl

Best appearing Apparatus/Vehicle – 2^nd place – 1925 & older – Lester Evans -1914 Am LaFrance – ex Lake City, Fla

Best appearing apparatus/vehicle – 1^st place – 1926 – 1950 – Frank Sullivans 1934 Ahrens Fox pumper – ex – Pearl River, NY

Best appearing apparatus/vehicle – 2^nd place – 1926 – 1950 – Orlando Fire Department - 1926 American LaFrance

Best appearing apparatus/vehicle – 1^st place – 1951- 1975 – Mitchell Carney -1970 R Model Mack pumper – ex – West Elizabeth, PA

Best appearing apparatus/vehicle – 2^nd place – 1951- 1975 – Osceola County FR – 1960 Dodge Power Wagon – ex Paoli, PA Fire Dept

Best appearing apparatus/vehicle – 1^st place – 1976-2000 – Mike Currant – 1986 Chevy C30 Rescue – Dundalk, MD

Best appearing apparatus/vehicle – 2^nd place – 1975 -2000 – Steve Vinson – 1980 American LaFrance – Century - ex New Kingston, Pa.

Best appearing non-motorized piece – 1^st place – Bill Graham – 1919 - Wirt/Knox hose cart

Best appearing non-motorized piece – 2^nd place – Tim Sullivan – 1896 Hose cart

Oldest non-motorized apparatus – 1^st place – Charles Heweker, Jr. 1880 Wirt/Knox hose cart

Oldest non-motorized apparatus – 2^nd place – Tim Sullivan – 1896 Hose cart

Oldest motorized apparatus/vehicle – 1^st place – Lester Evans – 1914 American LaFrance

Oldest motorized apparatus/vehicle – 2^nd place – Charles Heweker, Sr. 1923 Obenchain/Boyer pumper

Hard luck award – Larry Rovak – 1981 American La France

Judges award – Rich Heisler, Ricon, GA  - 1981 CJ7 Jeep

Judges award – Deland FR, Deland, Fla  1942 Chevy/Oren

Fastest Water – Tom Hooker, Marshville, NC  - 1965 Seagrave

Fastest Water – Lester Evans, Sydney, Fla – 1914 American LaFrance

Best restoration vehicle – operational - Tommy Herman, ODHFS – 1935 Harley Davidson Fire Cycle

Most original apparatus – unrestored – Charles Heweker, Sr. – 1923 Chevy Obenchain/Boyer

Chiefs Choice – any category – Chris Oliphant, Washington, DC – 1924 Bickel Chemical Wagon

BEST OF SHOW – Mike Dunbar, Virginia – 1939 GMC/COB pumper – ex Gordonsville, VA

We would like to thank all the friends and members who sponsored all these awards.

We had a very nice banquet on Saturday night with about 120 members attending.  We honored one of our members, Mr. Bill Perdue in the memorial service along with 16 other chapters members who departed us in 2024 and was chaired by Dawson Blackmore; Patrick Juliano from the Palm Coast FR was our bagpiper again and we had a gentleman from the Solivita 55+ community who played taps for us.  My good friend and fellow firefighter from Delaware and a member of FABB was our MC for the evening. Chief Jim Walls was our guest speaker and read off his notes from a previous convention that he was guest speaker.  The center pieces for the tables were donated by a friend of Bob Romig’s who lives in Solivita, Poinciana.  They were donated to the oldest person sitting at each table.  Seems that several of them became head gear for a couple of our National officers and I do have photos if anyone would like to see them.