By Kevin J Sabo
For the Advance
Members of Castor Volunteer Fire Rescue will be gearing up for a good cause later in July.
The annual Firefighter Stair Climb Challenge is taking place across the province between July 20th and July 26th, where volunteers will dress in their bunker gear and Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus packs before embarking on a 1204 step climb.
Normally, the event is held in person in Calgary, with firefighters from across the province climbing the 58 storey Bow Tower in the city’s core. Plans for the 2020 edition of the event had to be changed due to the ongoing pandemic, and the participants had to transition to a “virtual” version.
In order to simulate the 1204 steps that they would be climbing in Calgary, the four volunteers from Castor’s fire department will be climbing the centre stairs in the Castor Arena.
“It was the closest thing we could get to the stair climb in the Town of Castor,” said team captain Sean Baldwin.
The four firefighters, in full gear and packs, will go up and down the stairs 50 times for the climb.
“It will take roughly seventeen to twenty minutes, with a twenty second break each time,” said Baldwin.
Funds raised from the event will go toward supporting Wellspring Calgary, an organization that, according to their website, provides “programs, and services that meet the emotional, practical, and restorative needs of people living with cancer, their caregivers, and their families.” The organization has been helping those afflicted with cancer around the Calgary area since 2007 and is solely funded through fundraising and donations. The organization does not take any government funding.
This event has run for several years, with $300,000 raised in 2019 alone. So far, Baldwin and the team have raised $1285 of their $2000 goal. Donations to the team can be made directly on the event website, www.calgarystairclimb.com/why-we-climb/, clicking the “Show a participant support” button, and looking for the Castor team in the search bar.
In addition to Baldwin, Stephen Rayfield, Taylor Nichols, and Brad Plehnert will be participating. The four firefighters will be doing their climb in two waves, two members at a time, on July 25, 2020, starting at 10 a.m. Due to the pandemic, this will be a closed event, and the general public will unfortunately not be allowed into the facility to support the climbers.