For the second year in a row, February came and went without the peculiar sight of Airdrie’s firefighters waving at passersby from atop the roof of a local pub.
Matt Elgie, the president of the Airdrie Professional Firefighters Association (APFA), said the association’s ninth annual rooftop camp-out fundraiser was cancelled in late 2021, when COVID-19 cases were still surging across Alberta.
Though cases have dropped and public health restrictions have since been lifted, he said the decision to call off the camp-out was made well beforehand.
“We weren’t able to go ahead with it because of the restrictions and unknown factors that were in place at the time we had to make that call,” he said. “It takes a lot of volunteer hours, preparation, and coordination to pull the event off.
“We had to make a decision in November as to whether or not we’d be able to go forward with it. At the time, there were too many uncertainties to ask all the businesses in the community to commit to it.”
The APFA’s rooftop camp-out has been an annual tradition since 2014. The event sees a small group of Airdrie firefighters spend three nights in February sleeping atop the roof of the Toad and Turtle Pubhouse and Grille in Kingsview Market. The firefighters are confined to either the roof or the pub for 72 hours, regardless of what the elements have in store.
The yearly initiative has a charitable aspect, as it raises funds for Muscular Dystrophy Canada. In addition to a live auction that is held in the pub below, the firefighters have a boot on a string that they lower from the roof to allow members of the public to donate cash.
Since 2014, the camp-out has raised more than $121,000 for Muscular Dystrophy Canada.
“It’s been going on for a number of years in Airdrie and it’s been going on across North America for many decades,” Elgie said. “I think people have it marked in their calendar as something they are expecting.”
Despite the hardships of camping outside during what are potentially the coldest nights of the year, Elgie said APFA members are always eager to take part in the camp-out and raise money for an important cause.
“It doesn’t matter what the weather is,” Elgie said. “We’ve seen some pretty insane, -30 C temperatures with blizzards, and we’ve also seen them up there doing yoga classes or riding exercise bikes in their shorts.
“You never know what the weather will bring to Airdrie in February, but during that time frame, there’s usually some live music going on in the venue, along with a silent auction and other means to collect money…for Muscular Dystrophy.”
Last year’s rooftop camp-out was also cancelled as a result of the pandemic, though the APFA still raised more than $8,000 for Muscular Dystrophy Canada and three Airdrie-based charities through an online auction.
With two cancellations in a row, Elgie couldn’t say if the rooftop camp-out would return next year or be retired, but he added members of the APFA are busy brainstorming alternative ideas to continue supporting charitable causes this year.
“We’re always disappointed when one of our events that benefits the community can’t go ahead, but we’re pretty good at finding other ways to create something else,” Elgie said. “The Airdrie firefighters’ charitable foundation is working on a few different projects right now and I’m sure we’ll have something to announce in the next little while.
“I don’t want to put words in the mouths of the board of directors, but they definitely want to find something. Whatever energy exists in the community now to give back and raise money for different events – especially given the world geopolitical state of affairs – there are definitely lots of causes, both local and afar [to support].
“Hopefully we’re at a point where we can do some more long-range planning and move these things forward.”
