"Hand a lemon to a Vermont Yankee and he'll make lemonade of it - sweetened with maple sugar, maybe. The birth of the East Dover Volunteer Fire Company is a typical example of the Vermont attack."
This is the opening line from an article written by Florence Thompson Howe for the in 1951. In her heartwarming article she tells us how the East Dover Volunteer Fire Department was formed in 1949. The following is an excerpt from that article:
A committee was appointed to find out how much money would be needed to enable the Company to buy fire-fighting equipment. The report set a figure of $2,500.00 as something to shoot at, but nobody thought the little village of three hundred souls could raise it. However, Allen Hamlin, an exceedingly capable "new resident" put his experienced shoulder to the wheel and, working with the townspeople in the old Vermont "town-meeting" fashion, a two-day carnival was planned.
A costumed ball was held on the opening night of the carnival, and the high-light of the two day festival came with the dedication on Saturday of the memorial to Dover men who served in the two late wars.
At the close of the two days' festivities, $1,357.00 was deposited to the credit of the East Dover Volunteer Fire Company. Social activities, repeated from time to time have swelled the fund and knit the community together more closely. Incorporation as a non-profit organization under the laws of Vermont was effected for the purpose of: "Providing fire protection to the inhabitants and property owners of the town of Dover, County of Windham and State of Vermont, and to those in surrounding towns whose property is adjacent to the Dover town lines, and undertaking such other projects as may promote the social welfare and civic betterment of said town."