ASHLAND — Who knows? Maybe one of the hundreds of kids at the annual pancake day Saturday morning will become a firefighter someday.
Like Steve Cellar.
Cellar, 55, is set to retire next month from Ashland Fire Division after 25 years of service. Saturday’s 51st annual Pancake Day was his last.
“It’s bittersweet,” he said, taking a brief break from flipping pancakes.
Cellar grew up in Ashland County. He remembers coming to this event as a kid. His uncles served as firefighters.
“So we would come and see them and see the trucks,” he said. The job always fascinated him, he said. But it wasn’t until later in life he decided to pursue fighting fires as a career. He became a firefighter at age 30, after working as a land surveyor.
Before joining AFD, he worked on a volunteer fire company in Knox County. It’s that experience, he said, that grew his interest. He put himself through fire school, and landed a job with Ashland — where the department funded his paramedic school.
“Been here ever since,” Cellar said. That was in 1999.
All these years later, Cellar is ready to pass the torch. He had his turn as the event’s chair around 20 years ago. “That’s usually a new-guy thing, like ‘hey, guess what? You’re pancake guy,’” Cellar said.
This year, the “new guy” is Corey Sprang.
Sprang, 29, has been a firefighter for AFD for seven years. Last year, Sprang served as the event’s co-chair, to learn the ropes.
He said the charitable event typically raises around $10,000. That money is divvied up to charities, like Rotary Club of Ashland, Ashland County Mental Health and Recovery Board, American Cancer Society and National Fallen Firefighters Foundation.
The numbers
Sprang said this year the firefighters bought 400 pounds of pancake mix, 450 pounds of sausage, 5,000 packets of butter, 42 gallons of syrup, around eight cans of Folgers coffee and 1,000 milk cartons.
Firefighters encourage guests to donate what they can.
“It’s great,” said fire Chief Rick Anderson. “It’s great community involvement — the guys love to do it.”
Anderson said he enjoys seeing the familiar faces, some of which he sees only once a year — at the pancake day.
The fire chief undoubtedly sees Ashland Mayor Matt Miller more than once a year, but the mayor and his wife — Melanie — came ready to partake in the community tradition. The Millers have been coming together for 16 years. He enjoys the sausages; she enjoys the Mickey Mouse pancakes.
So do the kids. One of them, Eva Schwan, 7, was outside in the driver seat of the division’s ladder truck. She put on the seatbelt, pressed some buttons — her family snapped some photos.
Ian Ortez, 3, touched some knobs of another truck nearby.
Are they future public servants?
It’s possible. One thing is certain: there will always be an annual pancake day.
“I support everything they do,” said Rick Hirst, a guest who was eating a pancake inside Central Station with hundreds from the community.
