Songwriter Gives Back to Fire Company

Frances Drost song ‘Set of Wheels’ 
helps finance new engine for Newville firefighters

by Steve Kennedy

A Newville-area singer-songwriter is using her talents to raise funds for a community group that responded in her family’s hour of need 35 years ago. In 1986, when Frances Drost was 20, the barn on her family’s farm caught fire. Newville’s Friendship Hose Co. No. 1 responded to the blaze. Now, Drost will donate part of her winnings from the Global Rising Song Contest, a crowdfunding songwriting competition, toward the company’s purchase of a new fire engine.
In the contest, aspiring singer-songwriters submit a video of their original song, and winners are selected by music industry judges and fan votes. 

Drost, best known throughout south central Pennsylvania for her annual Portraits of White Christmas concert, submitted her song “Set of Wheels” to Super Round 2 of the competition, in which it will compete against winners of the past eight rounds. Fans can vote at globalrisingsong.com by making a donation of $1 or more, with funds intended to sustain the songwriters in their musical careers. Drost won the Fan Favorite award in a previous round with her song “Inside Things” and donated $1,500 to the Big Spring Area Food Bank. 

“It will be a wonderful way to pay tribute to our local fire company, especially since I’m a Newville native whose family needed their services,” Drost says. “It would only be fitting if my song ‘Set of Wheels’ could help our firefighters get a new ‘set of wheels.’ ” Friendship Hose Co. is purchasing a new $713,000 rescue unit to replace a 29-year-old vehicle. Drost, who attended kindergarten in the building that is now the Newville firehouse, hopes to be able to donate at least $2,500 to the fire company in this round of the contest. 

“This is a great support for us, as well as for Frances,” says Bradley Stouffer, fire chief at Friendship Hose Co. No. 1. “This is something that will benefit the fire company and the Newville community.”

Drost recounts another connection between the barn fire and her singing career: “One day as I was standing on the cement wall that was the entrance to what had been the barn, I began singing. I had my boombox with me and a cassette sound track of Sandi Patty’s beautiful arrangement of ‘A Mighty Fortress.’ I sang as loud as I could—my voice singing out over the charred remains. As I sang the song that day, I had a strange sensation that someday I’d stand in front of crowds of people and sing. In a moment, the sensation passed and I finished the song.”

Vote for Frances' song "Set of Wheels" by going to GlobalRisingSong.com. Click on the Cast Vote button under Set of Wheels and vote by Sunday, August 8, 9:00 CT.

Watch video here.

The News Chronicle