NEWS

Firefighters nearing goal for stair climb

Jenn Rowell
jrowell@greatfallstribune.com

On Sunday, seven members of Great Falls Fire Rescue will climb 69 floors wearing about 60 pounds of gear.

They’re participating in the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb, which raises money and awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Those 69 floors equate to 1,311 steps and 788 feet of elevation.

For J.D. Kulbeck, team captain, this will be his seventh climb.

Over the years, firefighters have climbed for family members and friends who have battled with leukemia or lymphoma, or those who have lost their lives to the disease.

The firefighters also team with Sletten Cancer Institute to find people willing to let the firefighter climb in their honor.

“To me, it’s just a great cause,” Kulbeck said. “In one day, about 1,800 guys raise almost $2 million.”

For some firefighters, it’s personal.

Dave Van Son will be climbing for the second time this year.

He lost his father to Non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

He’s also climbing for Erin England.

The 14-year-old was diagnosed with leukemia about a year ago.

“I think it’s really nice and it helps out for a lot of things,” Erin said. “It’s a great thing that they do.”

Erin and her father, Troy England, said they’ve talked to Van Son as he’s trained for the stair climb and attended some of the fundraisers the team has organized around town.

Erin said knowing that a Great Falls firefighter is climbing in her name makes her feel more connected to others going through the same thing.

The GFFR team fundraising goal is $7,500 and its individual goals are $1,500.

As of Monday evening, the team had raised $7,335.

They train in downtown parking garages, on the stairmill at their gym and regular workouts. The stair climb can be an extra motivator for local firefighters to stay in shape, even though there aren’t any 69-story buildings in Great Falls.

The firefighters climb in groups of 50, and Kulbeck said every 14 seconds, someone is going up the stairwell.

His best time is 18:29. The fastest climber at GFFR got 14:50 and a Missoula firefighter has done it in under 11 minutes.

Online

Want to donate?

Find the team page here.