Captain’s Challenger Challenge car show and concert will be held Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. honoring Fresno Fire Capt. Pete Dern.
The event will take place at Fresno State in front of the Smittcamp Alumni House. Food vendors and nonfood items will be sold. Rock bands such as the Masters of Rock, Pirate Radio and Journey Revisited will also be providing entertainment.
All proceeds will go to the Captain’s Challenger Challenge, a nonprofit organization providing resources and support for injured firefighters. Money from the organization will support families of injured firefighters for the first few months after they are injured.
“We expect a great turnout, and we welcome everybody to attend,” said Tess Dunaway, the nonprofit co-founder. “Two Fresno Fire and two Clovis Fire trucks will be there as well as a whole bunch of firefighters. It’s a free event, and we will be accepting donations and selling T-shirts.”
Gary Schellenbert, another co-founder, described Dern as a selfless individual.
“I went to high school with Pete, and he was one of those really nice guys in school,” he said. “It didn’t surprise me he went on to be a fire captain. I’m glad to honor him this way and help other firefighters this way, too.”
Dunaway said Dern will not be attending the event because he is still recovering. Dern suffered second-and-third-degree burns over 70 percent of his body on March 29 of this year when he fell through the roof of a burning home.
“Pete was lucky in that somebody happened to be videotaping, and it went viral,” Dunaway said. “My partner [Schellenbert] and I were in Las Vegas when we heard the news, and we thought how could this be making news in Las Vegas about a Fresno firefighter. When we found out it was Pete, we thought it couldn’t be him, but it was him and it just hit us at that point. We wanted to do something.”
Dunaway added that there currently aren’t funds supporting firefighters when they are injured.
“Most firefighters don’t have that kind of publicity like Pete did,” Dunaway said. “We don’t see their injuries. I started thinking who is paying the PG&E bill or the college fund, and is that [college fund] even a possibility anymore because of all the extra bills?”
The organization has also planned a Route 66 road trip in honor of Dern. The challengers will stop at fire houses and various points of interest to help fund the nonprofit.