Bonnyville Fighters climb to raise $6000 for charity

For the fifth year in a row, members of the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority (BRFA) climbed Bow Building in Calgary to help raise awareness and money for the Wellspring Cancer Centre. This year the group of ten raised $6,089 for the initiative.

The ten firefighters took on  775 vertical feet, or 1204 steps, of The Bow Building in full duty gear. Team lead, Craig Wenzel said the crew has been training since January for the event.

“Every Sunday we met at the C2 to climb the stairs at the RJ,” he explained. Although the RJ Lalonde Arena isn’t a straight climb and you do have to descend and go back up, it was great practice for the challenge ahead of them.

Wenzel has taken part in the event for the past five years, “it was nice to be a part of it again,” he said.

Wenzel didn’t hit his best time, but was quite proud of his time, making it up the 1204 steps in 22 minutes and 23 seconds. “I just try to keep up with the young guys,” Wenzel laughed. He came in with the third best time of the BRFA members.

The best time from the department went to Coltin Batke with an impressive time of 18 minutes and 9 seconds.

The overall best time of the climb was 11 minutes and 32 seconds.

“The biggest motivation is to raise money, that’s why we’re there. Second is the team building and third is the climb.” Wenzel added that he and the other nine climbers would like to thank the community for their support and helping raise over $6,000 for those living with cancer.