The grunt of climbing the 51 flights of stairs up the Sky Tower is still fresh in their minds and already the Brightwater team of firefighters is planning next year’s challenge.
Team captain Elliot Slotemaker says that apart from the incredible feeling of completing the challenge and raising more than $14,000 for people living with blood cancer, the community response was “amazing”.
“The community was so open about donating, especially at the moment when people don’t have that spare change,” he says. “It’s just such a positive thing to donate to and we want to thank the community.”
For months, the team - Cole Slotemaker, Cody Treanor, Paul Shutte and Brenton Laing - had trained for the event by running up Katania Heights, climbing the Tamaki Steps and tackling the nine levels of the Rutherford Hotel stairway. Now they plan to keep training for next year’s challenge.
Cody summed up this year’s challenge as an incredible experience that was “tough, rewarding, and amazing to be part of such a great cause”.
The Richmond Volunteer Fire Brigade’s team of seven, Bryan Parks, Craig Clayworth, Ashley McCabe, Willow Dobson, Olivia Wells, team captain Sam Oliver and Simon Childerhouse also credited community support for their fundraising success, raising $16,645 for the cause.
