The city of Courtland’s population is expected to double in size April 6. In the small town of 763, more than 1,000 tickets have been sold for the upcoming Fire and Brimstone pancake feed benefiting Courtland Fire and Rescue.
For one morning only, award-winning, Minneapolis-based breakfast and brunch restaurant Hell’s Kitchen will be descending on the Courtland community with piles upon piles of their signature lemon-ricotta pancakes free of charge in an effort to support the small town volunteer fire department.
This marks Hell’s Kitchen’s second large-scale, pro-bono breakfast to benefit a small town community. During the winter of 2014, when the restaurant heard the northern Minnesota town of Embarrass was suffering temperatures 64 degrees below zero, they decided to warm the community up with a pancake fundraiser benefiting the area fire department.
A decade later, Hell’s Kitchen decided now was the perfect time to lighten the load for another small town in Minnesota. Over the summer, dozens of small communities submitted their pitches for why they were deserving of a breakfast benefit.
Courtland received the attention of Hell’s Kitchen, thanks to a nomination by Kristi Mae Schroer, of St. Peter. Schroer said the breakfast was an opportunity to raise the community’s spirits after Courtland Fire and Rescue suffered two tragic losses in the past few years.
On July 13, 2023, Schroer’s personal friend and a Courtland Fire Department volunteer Kayla Giefer took her own life at the age of 28, 16 months after her fiancé and Fire Department colleague Tyrone Stueber committed suicide. In a small community like Courtland, where everybody knows everybody, their deaths shook the whole town.
“I couldn’t think of anybody that needed something positive to happen for them more than Courtland,” said Schroer. “All of the money raised is going directly to the Fire Department for whatever they need in their community. This will really set them up for a long time and give some support they need after the loss of two members.”
Schroer then brought the fundraising campaign to the attention of Helping Minnesota Heroes. The organization, dedicated to assisting first responders in Nicollet, Blue Earth, Le Sueur, Sibley and Brown counties, also submitted a nomination on Courtland’s behalf, and it wasn’t long before the community was chosen as the lucky winner.
“We felt like it was an opportunity to do something good, not only for the Courtland Fire Department, but the Courtland community,” said Helping Minnesota Heroes President Heather Tollefson. “They’re a very small community of only 700, so everybody knew them, and we just wanted to bring something that was going to be a spirit lifter.”
The benefit is positioned to be a major boon for Courtland Fire and Rescue. The event has already generated $10,000 in revenues from pre-sale tickets, and all of the proceeds will be funneled to the department. With more tickets available for sale and a silent auction on the day of, Courtland will have even more cash on hand to support their equipment needs.
Courtland Fire Chief Dave Ubel said the department hasn’t yet decided what equipment the money will go to, but it will likely support items to assist firefighters that the department couldn’t afford to purchase with the city’s budget alone.
“I can’t stress enough how much this will help us and help the community,” said Ubel. “It’s not so much helping us out as it’s helping the people of our community by providing better equipment, better service.”
The level of community support has been nothing short of astonishing. Ubel noted there had been contributions from a wide range of regional businesses and fire departments, and someone in the community had even purchased tickets on behalf of the whole volunteer fire department and their families.
“It almost brought a tear to my eye thinking about what our small community does for us,” said Ubel. “When we lost two firefighters, there was a sign out there, and everybody in the community had signed it just saying that ‘We’ve got your back.’ Yesterday, I was just thinking I can’t believe that they’ve shown us all the support that they have been.”
The full pancake breakfast will be served at the Courtland Community Center between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m., featuring lemon ricotta pancakes and Bloody Mary’s served by Hell’s Kitchen, bacon donated by Compart Family Farms, and firebrick beer donated by Schell’s Brewery.
GET A TICKET The Fire and Brimstone pancake breakfast will be served at the Courtland Community Center between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 6. Pre-sale tickets can be purchased for $10 online at mnheroes.square.site or at the Red Men Club in St. Peter, Courtland Fire Department, Nicollet Fire Department, Lafayette Fire Department and Cleveland American Legion. Tickets at the door are $15 and must be purchased with cash only.
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