Minden creamery donates ice cream to first responders

Who do you call when you have more than 31 gallons of ice cream you want to donate to first responders working on the Caldor Fire?

Apparently, the Kiwanis Club of Carson Valley.

Hoch Family Creamery owner Greg Hoch wanted to donate 500-plus half-pints of ice cream to evacuees.

Unfortunately, evacuees were spread all over Western Nevada, Kiwanian Gary Dove said.

“Because all the roads to Lake Tahoe were closed, we reached out to Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coveley, asking how we could get the ice cream to the Lake on Saturday afternoon,” Dove said.

That was about an hour before the mandatory evacuations on the Nevada side were lifted on Saturday, which opened a window for the ice cream truck.

Dove and Charlie Holt went to the creamery picked up the ice cream and drove it to Lake Tahoe’s Hard Rock Casino, where the fire command post is located.

Walking through an empty casino, the two men met Lake Tahoe Club Kiwanian and Tahoe-Douglas Fire Marshal Eric Guevin.

“We can’t thank Eric enough helping us get though the red tape of getting the first responders the ice cream,” Dove said. “We left 200 ½ pints for the for the command staff and fire crew staying at the hotel then Eric escorted us to the base camp at Heavenly Ski Resort where there’s 4000 plus personal working the fire.”

Dove said the men couldn’t hand out the ice cream to firefighters personally due to coronavirus restrictions, but they were able to leave the balance for them to enjoy.

“It’s a huge endeavor by everyone to save our Lake Tahoe region and surrounding areas,” he said.

The Hard Rock announced it opened on Tuesday night after a week, though it will still act as the incident command center and house and feed firefighters and emergency personnel.