Eight Pakenham CFA members have begun climbing the steps at Cardinia Lakes in an effort to raise money for mental health awareness.
For the second year in a row, the stair climb event will be undertaken virtually instead of being held at the Crown Metropol, challenging registered participants to rack up as many steps as they can over a month-long period.
The event kicked off on 10 September and will run for a month, finishing on World Mental Health Day on 10 October.
Russell Cotterell, who has been a volunteer at Pakenham for three years, said the cause was close to his heart.
“Three million Australians are living with depression and anxiety with 1 in 4 Australians will suffer from a mental illness in their lifetime,“ he said.
“10 per cent of our emergency service members suffer from PTSI. It doesn’t discriminate, it is very close to home for me.”
This is Russell’s second year doing the stair challenge, and he hopes to break 10,000 individual steps up the stairs at Cardinia Lakes.
“It’s tough,“ he said.
He predicts he and the other volunteers will spend around 10 hours climbing the stairs this month.
“The comradery we’ve got is unbelievable,“ he said.
Captain Michael Corzelius said he was proud of his fellow volunteers.
“It’s encouraging to see our members take initiative on a subject as important as mental health and PTSI and take on a challenge like this years virtual firefighter stair climb,“ he said.
“Myself and our fellow brigade members are proud of their effort and fundraising for this years climb and we hope the public gets behind them as well with support.”
Last year the brigade raised $9000, so they are hoping to beat that this year.
They already have $4,525 raised.
Head to firefighterclimb.org.au/station/cfa/pakenham/ to donate.
