The helping hands of Rotary reached across two nations to work through the red tape Blissfield Rotarians encountered in trying to get a firetruck they had purchased and outfitted across the border to serve a Mexican community.

Rotarians Bill Borchardt, Dr. Chris Mallow, Jerry Roessler and Rotary spouse Jeff Sieler left Blissfield March 9 with high hopes and a neon yellow-green firetruck in tow: destination, the United States-Mexico border at Laredo, Texas, where they would hand the truck over to the Puerto Vallarta fire chief who would drive it on to its new home.

Area Rotarians have worked since early last summer when the Blissfield Rotary purchased a firetruck in great condition, but too old to meet American service standards.

They outfitted it with the help of three other Lenawee County Rotary clubs from Clinton and Adrian, and a Rotary International grant. Local fire department personnel, upon learning of the project, jumped on board with donations of outdated gear and equipment.

Along the way, Borchardt also found a Rotary Club in Neotho, Missouri, had two ambulances they had been trying to donate to poverty-stricken people in Mexico. When they found out Borchardt had figured out how to accomplish the transfer, they offered one of the ambulances to Blissfield’s Puerto Vallarta project if he would help them with negotiating the maze of paperwork for the transfer.

“We found out Friday morning we didn’t have proper documentation,” Borchardt said. “They (American border officials at Laredo) put a 72-hour hold on all vehicles with a title.”

So they called Blissfield Rotary President Jean Sieler, an attorney, and she looked up the Rotary Club in Laredo, Borchardt said. Sieler found a Rotarian who was an attorney and whose husband was a federal agent. The Blissfield men used their Laredo counterparts’ office, their car, their conference room to continue slashing through the red tape Friday. The Laredo contacts also spoke Spanish and acted as translators for the Blissfield contingent.

At one point, they also hooked up with an importer/exporter from the Laredo Rotary club to help them through the process. The keys were finally handed to the Puerto Vallarta fire chief. “You should have seen his face when he got those keys!” Borchardt said.