HILTON, N.Y. — After a rained out weekend for the Hilton Fire Carnival, the fire department sold off excess food Monday evening to recoup money spent to stock up for the event.

The fire department says roughly two hours before the sale started at 6:30 p.m., cars were already lined up to get their hands on fan favorites.

What You Need To Know

  • After a rained out weekend for the Hilton Fire Carnival, the fire department sold off excess food Monday evening

  • The fire department says roughly two hours before the sale started at 6:30 p.m., cars were already lined up to get their hands on fan favorites

  • Items ranged from red hots, cheese, mac salad, diced potatoes and dough balls

  • The department says people can donate and buy leftover merchandise from the carnival by visiting their website

“You know, the weather got in the way of the rest of the carnival,” Marissa Callahan from Holley said. “So we wanted some fried dough either way.”

“We love the local department and want to support them,” Donna Utter of Greece added. “So we’re happy to hear that they were going to sell their leftovers.”

Items ranged from red hots, cheese, mac salad and diced potatoes, but the dough balls appeared to be the hot item during the sale, since many couldn’t attend the carnival Saturday.

The fire department says it's rare to have excess food sales.

“Usually, we have our four days of carnival and we order pretty close to what we’re going to need, and then we sell off the excess product to our volunteers and generally that takes care of the product,” Hilton Fire Department treasurer Neil Kendrick said.

Little did the fire department know the big crowd that would show up, as people from far and near came out to answer the call of duty of helping the fire department break even on food.

“The carnival pays for our operations, and uniforms, training and stuff like that,” Kendrick said. “So the bulk of the fundraising is the carnival, probably 85% of our fundraising.”

If needed, the fire district says it can cut programming, training, or dip into the emergency funds to cover costs.

“You know, we hate to dip into the savings. It’s there for an emergency,” Kendrick said. “For example, when we didn’t run a carnival in 2020 due to COVID, we did have to dip into the savings a little bit, but primarily, we just stopped all spending, noncritical spending.”

Thankfully, the excess food sold out less than an hour after opening to the public, with people saying it was well worth the wait.

"We're very thankful that this line paid off,” Utter said. “And we got the dough balls, fried dough tonight for sure, even though we didn't get at the carnie.”

The Hilton Fire Department says people can donate and buy leftover merchandise from the carnival by visiting their website.