One of the boots being put out by Wrangell Volunteer Fire Department in an effort to raise funds for the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb in Seattle next month. The charity drive benefits efforts to treat and cure leukemia, lymphoma and other cancers of the blood.
The Volunteer Fire Department will be sending six of its members to Seattle next month, to climb a lot of stairs and raise a lot of money for cancer research in the process.
Held this year on March 12, the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb is an annual event put on by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Washington and Alaska. Founded in 1949, the society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to researching and treating various blood cancers.
About 1,800 firefighters from across the country and abroad raise money for the cause, and will partake in the 69-story climb at the Columbia Center, the West Coast's second-tallest skyscraper. Participants make the climb in full firefighting gear, breathing tanks and all. They get timed as well, ascending individually in 15-second intervals.
"As the day goes by the stairwell gets hotter and smells like sweat and vomit," recalled Walter Moorhead, who made the climb for Wrangell last year.
Including himself, making up team again this year will be Jordan Buness, Chris Hatton, Dustin Johnson, and Dorianne and Adam Sprehe. The six all participated in last year's climb, for which they raised more than $15,000.
"We'll be taking another person with us probably, to change our air bottles on the 40th floor," Moorhead said. That floor is the only one made available for a brief respite, just time enough for a fresh tank of air to be attached to the suit before resuming.
The group began preparing for this year's climb shortly after Thanksgiving, setting up a popcorn booth during Midnight Madness on December 2. Last year they had also held a spaghetti dinner, but Moorhead explained they may not this year due to mixed schedules.
To help spread the word and collect some funds, boots have been placed at the town's two grocery stores and at First Bank.
"They're a receptacle for donations for the team," Moorhead explained. He placed them out on Friday, and already got $125 over the weekend in change, bills, even checks. Anything gathered up in the boots will be divided evenly amongst the team members, as firefighters must raise their money individually for the climb. All funds raised then goes to LLSWA, and people headed to the climb arrange for their own travel and lodging expenses.
"Every little bit helps," he said.
People can also donate online, visiting the http://www.llswa.org website. Locals can search for the Wrangell team page through the "Donate" menu. Once located, they can pick either the team or individual climbers to contribute to, with the site tracking the team's fundraising progress.
The stated mission of LLSWA is to find cures for leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families in the meantime. Last year's climb brought in a record $2.3 million dollars for blood-cancer research and patient services.
Though the stated purpose is to research and combat blood-borne cancers, Moorhead pointed out that programs often overlap with other areas of research, and findings benefit the wider fight on cancer. "It's all a big research community."
Funding from LLSWA has gone to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, for example, which was where Moorhead's wife, Carol Ross, had gone for treatment for her sarcoma. She died before last year's climb, so the team wore pictures of her in their helmets during the event to remember her by. This year they will be wearing pictures of another local, recently diagnosed with cancer.
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