Local Firefighters Raise on $5K for Cancer Patients

Eleven volunteer firefighters from the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority (BRFA) were in Calgary on Sunday to climb the Bow Tower to support those living with cancer. Each firefighter surpassed the minimum donation benchmark of $200 to collect over $5,000 for Wellspring Calgary; an organization that assists cancer patients, and their families. Craig Wenzel, BRFA firefighter, says he couldn’t be more proud of the group that participated in the stairclimb challenge.

“We survived, so that’s a bonus,” Wenzel laughs off 1204 steps of the massive skyscraper, “we had eleven from the authority and raised $5,484.” The event is timed, with the winning department and firefighter receiving mad bragging rights. The first place team went to the host team, the Calgary Fire Department; but when you think about the fact they have the tower at their disposal to help train, then you really got to give props to the BRFA for some great times. “Our fastest time was 15:02.00, Dylan Jordison, he was 38th in placement for the racers; he did amazing. Speed-wise, he was the fastest on our team.”

“The group that went from here, we tried to beat our times from last year, and I think pretty much everybody was successful. I knocked about a 1:16.00 off my time, so I was pretty content with that,” Wenzel says some of his teammates made really impressive cuts to their times, “there was a few that trained a little harder, and one fella knocked about eight minutes off his time. Another was five. The ones that do it in 15-16 minutes, seconds matter, they’re pretty good with shaving a few seconds off their time.” The fastest time up the 774 vertical feet, was Kyle Rebryna of Station 6 Calgary, at 12:06.00 . “One of our volunteer guys, who does this as more of a side volunteer thing, only three minutes slower than that is pretty amazing.”

“Realistically, the dollar amount of the money raised, by the groups, is really the biggest thing to be proud off,” proclaims Wenzel.  There was over 300 firefighters participating in the stairclimb, with over $176,000 raised for Wellspring Calgary.

After the climb