INNISFAIL – The town’s firefighting heroes, joined by the mayor and senior staff, went south to WinSport's Canada Olympic Park in Calgary earlier this month for a race to support firefighters living with cancer.
On June 5, Innisfail fire chief Gary Leith and firefighter Cara Cochrane led Mayor Jean Barclay, along with Coun. Dale Dunham, CAO Todd Becker, Erica Vickers, director of corporate services and Steven Kennedy, director of operational services, to the 8th annual Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge.
“Firefighters suffer a higher incidence of cancer than the majority of the workforce because of the exposures to chemicals as a result of fires or hazardous material incidents,” said Leith, who has participated in the challenge, either in-person or virtually, for the past five years he’s been Innisfail’s fire chief.
“Firefighters are more predisposed to cancers. Like pretty much everybody in society, we've all been touched by cancer. My dad passed away at the beginning of COVID with cancer. So, it's quite personal.”
The annual fundraising event is held in support of Wellspring Calgary; a registered charity offering programs and services that has a mission to provide the emotional, social and practical needs of people living with cancer, including caregivers and children.
This year’s in-person stairclimb challenge was the first since 2019. During the COVID-restriction years of 2020 and 2021 organizers hosted virtual challenges.
In past non-COVID years most challenges were held by climbing the 1,204 steps of the downtown Bow building but organizers still had pandemic safety in mind and chose to have a hybrid event, with participants having the chance to climb in-person at Canada Olympic Park or virtually from May 27 – June 5.
On May 28, Innisfail firefighter Eric Peppinck completed the virtual tour with a time of 19:02.
While the in-person event at Canada Olympic Park did not have any stairs this year it was a hike of three kilometres along a service road with a climb in elevation of 390 feet.
However, the event was held with two different groups. There was the Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge that was open only to firefighters, and the Challenge the Chief event, which was open to any non-firefighters. With at least one participant in every group carrying a 60 lb. pack of firefighting gear, they had a goal of besting Calgary Fire Chief Steve Dongworth.
“We were the only community in Alberta to participate in that,” noted Barclay of the Challenge the Chief event, which began at 9 a.m. with the Innisfail team calling itself, “What Were We Thinking???” and then blasting first out of the gate.
Several hours later Leith and Cochrane completed their Firefighter Stairclimb Challenge, with the Innisfail fire chief crossing the finish line with his young grandsons Lukas and Spencer - both proudly attired in firefighting attire.
In the end, Innisfail’s two teams raised $2,795 for Wellspring Calgary, a charity the mayor and fire chief both hold dear to their hearts.
“I know what I wonderful organization Wellspring is and the services they deliver to cancer patients and their families and helping them through a very difficult time,” said Barclay. “I hope we can see more Wellspring programs and offerings in Central Alberta in the future.
“I think it was a very worthy cause to support and it's wonderful to be able to support the firefighters here.”
