By Tim SchmidtRecord Managing EditorTickets are expected to be a hot item for this year’s Warren County BackStoppers Dinner Dance.The fifth annual fundraiser is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 21, at the St. Ignatius Community Center in Concord Hill.Only 400 tickets will be sold. The dinner dance has been sold out each year, and Marthasville Fire Chief Jeff Backhaus, who helps organize the event with other emergency service agencies, expects that to continue.“You will want to get them early,” he said. “If you are new, you will want to get them early. We have a lot of repeat attendees.”The event will include a buffet-style dinner from 5:30-6:30 p.m. and a dance featuring the band Phase Five from 9 p.m.-midnight. A silent auction will be held from 5-7:30 p.m., with an oral auction to follow from 8-9 p.m.Tickets cost $25 per person and are available by contacting the Warrenton Fire Protection District at 636-456-8935 or Backhaus at 636-667-3434.BackStoppers provides support and financial assistance to the spouses and children of local and county police officers, firefighters, publicly funded paramedics and EMTs who have lost their lives in the line of duty.The assistance includes paying for school, a family’s mortgage, health and dental insurance coverage, and college tuition. The organization assists families in 13 counties in Missouri, including Warren and Franklin, and five in Illinois.BackStoppers committee members also are accepting items for both the silent and oral auction and seeking sponsorships for the event. Contributors will be recognized in the event program or on a wall banner, depending on the size of their donation. The sponsorship levels are as follows: Friend of BackStoppers, $1-$249; bronze, $250; silver, $500; gold, $750; and platinum, $1,000.Donations can be made by contacting Backhaus or committee member Frank Stuerman at 636-357-2342.“All donations are welcome,” Backhaus said. “None are too small.”Backhaus said this year’s fundraising goal is $60,000, the same amount that was donated last year. When the local BackStoppers group was formed in 2011, the inaugural dinner dance raised $15,000 and the amount has steadily increased each year thereafter.“We have such a great group of citizens and businesses that donate and come and support it on top of that,” Backhaus said. “Anything that we raise is definitely great since it’s going to a good cause.”Three families with Warren County ties are benefiting from the BackStoppers organization.Paul Fricke, a Warren County deputy and Hawk Point police chief, was killed Aug. 27, 2010, while on duty. He was driving south on Highway 47 exiting Hawk Point when he lost control of his police cruiser and struck a utility pole.Lonnie Cole, who was killed in October 2003, was a deputy with the Warren County Sheriff’s Department.In October 2002, Truesdale police officer Vernon Seals was killed after being struck by a vehicle that was being chased by other officers on Interstate 70.Planning underway for BackStoppers fundraiser