By Max Davies
TRAINING has begun for 18 Mitchell Shire firefighters ahead of the annual Melbourne Firefighter Stair Climb to raise funds for various health and emergency services foundations.
Planned for September 2, the stair climb will see participants from across Australia scale 28 floors of Melbourne’s Crown Metropol while wearing up to 25 kilograms of firefighting equipment.
The Mitchell Shire group has set a fundraising goal of $25,000, in support of the $700,000 total outlined for the stair climb that will go towards the 000 Foundation, Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation and Lifeline.
Mitchell Shire group coordinator Matt McLaughlin, who is also a firefighter with Hilldene Fire Brigade, said he was excited to see multiple local firefighters engaged with the cause.
“I thought ‘hey, why not get our guys amongst it?’ so I got everyone together and basically said ‘let’s get this done’ and we got strong interest,” he said.
“We got 17 or 18 firefighters involved. It’s the first time I’ve coordinated it, and there’s a fair bit to do but it’s worth every bit of time to be a part of it.”
A range of businesses in the Mitchell Shire have thrown their support behind the group’s efforts, including Beer Auto Group, Seymour and Kilmore Toyota, Central Ford and Seymour Tyre and Mechanical.
Some of the businesses, including Linfox in Sunbury, are stockpiling vehicle batteries that will be recycled at Kidd Metals in Campbellfield, who will then donate $600 per tonne of batteries recycled.
Body Fit Training in Seymour has also provided a location for the firefighters to train over coming months.
“We do weekly training sessions as a group, so we plan on getting out and around the community and not even just in our community,” Mr McLaughlin said.
“We’re going to go to Bendigo to use a tower they’ve got there, there’s a Telstra tower in Shepparton we will use so we can start climbing stairs. We want to start getting out and seeing our local area as well so that’s what we’re going to do over the next couple of weeks.
“We want to keep that community engagement and get the community on board and say ‘hey look, this is what we’re doing, this is what your firefighters are doing’.”
For more information or to donate to the cause or a specific firefighter, people can visit .
