On February 25th The Frozen Tongue Challenge took place in Watrous with over 70 people in the cold to watch the event.

The Watrous Fire Department currently is looking for a new truck to replace the old one for their rural jobs. It is a 1970's model truck and is in need of replacement. The head of sales at Mainline saw a need that should be met, and issued a challenge to start the fundraising flow. After setting an initial goal of $5000.00, they completely blew past that, quickly arriving at a total of just shy of $18,000.00. 

Jeff Siegfried told us the reasoning of why he issued the challenge.

"Well, our firetruck for rural applications is quite old and needs some fixing. I saw this as an opportunity to get the ball rolling. Last year, on a day as cold as this one, the idea came to my head of how big a challenge like this could be."

Andrew Matheson, with the Watrous Fire Department, was the challenger, who came out on top, raising over $9000. With Siegfried's total just over $8000.00, that meant the man who issued the challenge would be the one to face the icy taste of defeat.

Matheson talked about how this will help the department to better serve the rural community around them.

"This was not something in the front grounds or something we had in the plans. So for us, this pushes us in the right direction, and turns a dream into more of a reality."

While his tongue was not on the pole for more than 10 seconds, those few moments raised over $17,000.00 for a firetruck.