Lions back firefighters

17 Apr 2024 • By Andy Campbell

In Sky Tower climbing gear are from left Remko Pootjes, Brendon Brown, Lisa Panapa and Moana Chadwick.

Selling second hand furniture and household goods has helped Ōtorohanga Lions sponsor the town’s fire fighters’ fundraising climb up the Auckland Sky Tower stairs this year. The Lions are underwriting nine fire fighters from the district’s brigades, five from Ōtorohanga and, for the first time, four Kāwhia fire fighters. A total of $9000 will go to the charity Leukaemia and Blood Cancer NZ (LBC) as a result. Lions president Malcolm Lister said firefighter Remko Pootjes had approached the club for assistance.

The Lions have made donations of $5000 and $4000 to the two brigades. Lister explained sales proceeds from the Ōtorohanga Lions Shop go back into the community and have become the primary source of club fundraising. The onus was now on the firefighters to top their sponsorship by $500, team captain Remko Pootjes said. “We do it for leukaemia [support] and the purpose is we all raise as much as we can, but we try and target $1500 each. By achieving their targets, the brigade will get to an automatic preference for next year’s Sky Tower Challenge. Automatic preference is key to re-entering the popular event, which is capped at a little more than 1000 firefighters who train for months for the opportunity to climb the 1226 sky tower steps in 25kgs of full gear, and wearing and or using breathing apparatus. “All of us try and get that automatic preference for next year because it is a very very popular event,” Pootjes said. “The main reason why we are doing it is one in eight people in New Zealand suffer from some form of either leukaemia or blood cancer. And so it’s a way of making the population aware of the diseases as well as how we fire fighters raise the funds. The national foundation received no government funding but “with 1000 of us doing it we raise about $1.5m.” This year’s event – the 20th – will be staged on May 18.