Jasper joins in calendar fundraising project

Heads turned as passers-by spotted the source of the commotion on the shore of Pyramid Lake on Aug. 5 – 27 firefighters in their yellow gear were posing to have their pictures taken.

Jasper’s brigade has joined The Fire Within, a project that brings volunteer fire departments together on the pages of a fundraising calendar.

The initiative began when Calgary-area volunteer fireman Chad Sartison joined his first brigade seven years ago and he saw the department struggling to collect funds. “I began to realize a big part of being a volunteer firefighter was raising money and some efforts were not successful,” he said. 

After mulling it over, Sartison came up with the idea to create a calendar and recruited friend and photographer Charles Hope to bring the notion to life. Hope said it sounded like fun and signed on to create The Fire Within.

Together, they made one calendar using photos of six departments in its first year. That quickly expanded to 36 departments spread over three calendars, and now in the project’s fifth year the project has been reorganized to include 42 brigades across Alberta. 

“Six will be constant, then we’ll regionally change six,” Hope said. “That allows us to get whoever wants to be in in.” A British Columbia version and two from Ontario will also be produced.

In its first appearance, Jasper will join Edson, Mayerthorpe and Lake Louise, to name a few. “As it goes it seems to get easier because the Jasper fire department will tell Hinton and it just starts to mushroom out,” Hope said. 

Twelve dollars from the sale of each $20-dollar calendar goes to the department that sells it, with the rest covering production costs. “The money that’s raised stays in the town,” Hope said. “And every department is different, some use it for equipment, for some it goes to charities.”

Jasper’s funds will be used for the latter, said fire chief Greg Van Tighem. “We’ve made the decision that we’re going to do it as a community service venture,” he said, adding that the funds haven’t been earmarked for anything specific.

Though some departments need the funding to support themselves, Jasper’s is fortunate because it has a “relatively functional budget with the municipality,” Van Tighem said.

The chief expects his crew should sell at least 500 calendars. “From all the discussion with the other departments, they made it sound like the process of selling and promoting the calendars went really well,” he said. “I haven’t spoken to anyone yet that didn’t sell all their calendars.”

A big push will come from the Heroes in the Sky event, where firefighters draw attention from a rooftop to a barbeque and calendar sale below. The event was conceived by The Fire Within and is put on by a number of departments.

Jasper’s heroes will take to the sky as soon as possible in mid-September when the calendars come in to catch the tail end of the tourist season. The rest will be sold by firefighters and potentially some businesses.

Another part of the project is to raise awareness, said Hope, because a number of people don’t know how many firefighters are volunteers. “We’ve talked about a Canada one we could sell in big cities because we really really want to get towns like Edmonton and Calgary to realize that when they drive from Calgary to Banff or Edmonton to Jasper they’re in the hands of volunteers.”

The 27 firefighters present at Jasper’s shoot were divided into three groups and the best photo of one group will be used for the main page of one month of the calendar. “Everybody had fun, they’re all looking forward to see who makes the calendar,” Van Tighem said. Four of the total 31 members couldn’t make it to the lake for the shoot. 

A smaller picture of the men lined up together at the firehall will be used below the main image. Van Tighem said those who don’t appear in the large photo this year may have another shot next year, if Jasper participates again.

“I’m quite positive we will,” he said. “Obviously it’s going to depend on how it works out this year, but we’re quite confident the community supports it 100 per cent.”