The Olds Fire Department's second firemen's bucket challenge, a fundraiser for three local non-profit organizations, nearly doubled its monetary target of $7,500 and raised almost $5,000 more than last year.
The event, in which a volunteer is hoisted 80 feet into the air in the bucket of a ladder truck for a day to raise money and food for Chinook Arch Victim's Services, the Olds and District Christmas Angels and the Mountain View Food Bank was held Dec. 11 at the fire hall.
This year, it raised about $14,151, far above the $9,227 obtained last year. A total of 1,200 pounds of food came in, a bit shy of the target of 2,000 pounds. Last year, 2,200 pounds of food was collected.
The three charities will decide how to split up what's been obtained.
Chinook Arch Victim's Services program manager Rhonda Kearns was thrilled with the result.
"It was absolutely awesome to have the community pull together for such awesome charities; it was great," she said later. "Every little bit helps, absolutely."
Mary Jane Harper of the Christmas Angels is also "very appreciative" for the money raised via the bucket challenge.
"We are so thankful for such a wonderful community and their generosity of all the citizens who supported the bucket challenge. We are so thankful that we live in such a giving community," she said in an email.
Mountain View Food Bank president Vicky Johnson said she figured the amount of food obtained this year would be lower than last year because the challenge came on the same day as the CP Holiday Train came through town and she knew a lot of people were planning to drop off food at that event.
Organizer Lt. Phil Finlay of the Olds Fire Department was asked if he thought the lower amount of food obtained is a result of the current economy. He's not sure. He noted the fundraising target was lowered to $7,500 out of concern for that.
But overall, he's pleased with how it turned out.
"I didn't know if we would hit the $9,000 mark again and then yeah, we well exceeded that. It's good for the town. I'm very happy," he said.
"I can't say enough good about this community and Mountain View County and everything that way and everybody who came out to support (it) and the volunteers who stayed there and helped out all day, because we were out there from 8 o'clock till 5:30.
"Then we had people who took food over to the food bank that night and got it all dropped off and delivered."
This year, the volunteer in the bucket was local resident and former NHL player Jay Rosehill, a new fire department recruit. He was up there from 9 a.m. to about 5 p.m.
It was a new experience for him.
"It was pretty cool," he said. "When you get up that high you've got a view of the town you've never seen before, so that was the first thing I noticed for sure.
"In the morning the sun was kind of coming up to the east there and it looked kind of cool. From each side of town you could see end to end and you could notice all different places from up there. You knew what they were and just had a different vantage point."
However, chinook winds were blowing hard.
"Quickly I noticed the wind howling from the south and it was pretty chilly, so I took the controls there and moved myself around so that the wind was kind of at the biggest part of the basket that had a bit of a windbreak there," Rosehill said.
"Everyone was talking about how nice it was going to be and how the temperatures looked so good and how I was lucky and that was the call, but that wind blowing from the south there can definitely be cold so that was something that we didn't really have planned."
Luckily for Rosehill, he's not scared of heights.
"I've never really had an issue with it," he said. "When we did some fire training, I actually went up that ladder and got clipped into the bucket. (I) even got to hang off the side of it and connect the hose connection to it so I had a little experience with it," he said.
"They need to see if you do have an issue with that before you kind of get on the department so I knew I wasn't going to be worried in any way and (that) didn't really change while I was up there, thankfully."
He agrees if he ever does this again, he'll bring more warm clothing.
"I didn't know what to expect with being up there that long and being outside for that long, even though the temperature was supposed to be decent," Rosehill said.
"I thought I'd better be safe than sorry, so I had lots of layers on and my firefighter bunker gear is really warm. I had some blankets up there and whatnot.
"I had some good boots on and I had an extra pair of socks (on) but I noticed they were the only thing that did get cold throughout the day, so it helped if I moved around up there and tried to get some blood flowing. But overall, it wasn't too bad. It could have been a lot worse."
Rosehill said as a newbie on the fire department it was his role to step forward and take on the challenge.
"We just needed someone and I'm new on the department; still a probationary firefighter, so I think that kind of comes with some responsibilities of doing things that maybe the veteran guys don't feel like doing so yeah, I put my name into the hat and thought it would be a good thing to do," he said.
