The Redwood Meadows Firefighters Association will host their sixth annual ‘Heroes In The Sky’ fundraiser this weekend.
The event begins at noon Sept. 13 and wraps up the evening of Sept. 14 and is a fundraiser that seeks to raise $15,000 to go toward health and wellness initiatives for the 45 members of the volunteer-run Redwood Meadows Emergency Services (RMES) team.
Complete with live music, a licensed barbecue and family-fun activities, the heroes (members from the RMES team) will be camped out on the roof of Bragg Creek Family Foods ‘come rain or shine’; the celebration takes place in the parking lot below.
“It’s a great party — bring your kids and come on down. Everyone had a great time last year,” said association president Gary Robertson, adding that as they are also gearing up for their Oct. 4 Firefighters Ball, they have scaled their fundraising goal back from $20,000 (raised in 2013) to $15,000 and are putting the emphasis on celebration this year.
Aside from health and wellness initiatives for their volunteers, the big goal for this year’s fundraising campaigns and events hosted by RMES is $100,000 — to be put toward building a fire training centre (to be built behind the existing fire hall in Redwood Meadows).
“It will be a two-level structure made out of shipping containers,” explained Robertson, adding that the training facility would make a positive impact on the ability for firefighters to train, including a digital firefighting training simulator for ‘the most realistic experience possible’.
The RMES responded to 420 calls last year; this year they are projected to be around 410.
The emergency services team provides fire, rescue and emergency medical first response care to the townsite of Redwood Meadows, the hamlet of Bragg Creek and portions of Rocky View County surrounding areas; they work in conjunction with Rocky View County and Cochrane Fire Services, providing assistance as needed.
Entry to ‘Heroes In The Sky’ is free. T-shirts and calendars will be on sale on site. Tickets to the annual ‘Firefighters Ball, which will be held at the Bragg Creek Community Centre are available at firefightersball.ca for $75 each.
