New Westminster firefighters traded in their fire trucks for tree chippers to raise funds for causes around town. The New Westminster Firefighters’ Charitable Society held its annual tree-chipping event on Jan. 4 and 5 at the Canada Games Pool parking lot.
“We brought in $6,700, which is pretty good,” said Josh Sharkey, the society’s treasurer. “It is pretty on target for what we usually get.” Sharkey said the weekend’s good weather helped draw crowds to the annual fundraiser and enticed them to stick around longer and enjoy activities such as a barbecue, musical entertainment, fire extinguisher demonstrations and face painting.
Off-duty firefighters volunteered their time to run the event.
“We got two bins full of mulched trees. It was 10 to 12 tonnes of tree mulch,” Sharkey said. “It goes to Harvest Power. It gets used either for a compost or they might use it for fuel.”
The society raises funds, which it donates to a wide range of projects in the community including the community lunch program at St. Barnabas Church, breakfast and lunch programs at local schools, the pediatric unit at Royal Columbian Hospital and others.
The biannual charity hockey game between the New Westminster firefighters and the Vancouver Canucks Alumni is the society’s biggest fundraiser, with the tree chipping and the shred-athon (paper shredding event) also raising funds for the society.
The shred-athon will be held in the spring.
