Firefighter brothers to go up to the Sky

What’s up, brothers? A laborious task in the Big Smoke for a flaming good cause.

Cole and Elliot Slotemaker are blazing a new trail, the first cabs off the rank to spark the Brightwater Volunteer Fire Brigade’s involvement in the Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge.

The annual event etched in firefighter calendars is the largest fundraiser for Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand (LBC).

Firefighters across the motu burn through the pain, ascending 51 flights of stairs in the southern hemisphere’s second tallest building, while rucking a 25kg carbon fibre cylinder.

For the Slotemakers, it's a heart-warming event in their combined 11-year voluntary service, and they’ve rigorously trained at Brightwater’s Katania Heights, Brightwater Group Fitness, Richmond Hills, Tamaki Steps and the Centre of New Zealand for the past six months.

They’ll put it into practice on challenge day on 24 May, and both men hope to be home and hosed in under 30 minutes.

“We’d talked for so long about doing it but never actually followed through, so when this year came around, I thought, ‘bugger it, I'll just do it’,” Cole says.

Elliot says this year was take two, since he and four other Brightwater volunteers were set for the challenge in 2020, but it got extinguished by Covid.

He also recognises the impacts of blood cancer.

“We've seen our uncle with lymphoma, he passed away last year in July, so it's kind of given us a boost and a bit of energy to get us upstairs to a certain degree,” he says.

“We're really excited to add the Brightwater name to the bottom of the Auckland Sky Tower and represent the brigade, that makes you feel pretty proud.”

Elliot says he and Cole had an initial $1700 combined fundraising target.

But their current total, thanks to the community, already sees them with $3280 in the kitty.

“We couldn’t have done this without the support from the community,” Elliot says.

“We’ve been fundraising by rattling the can at station open days… and we've also done sausage sizzles at Bunnings Warehouse, and we've also done a big quiz night at Sprig + Fern Brightwater, which we've got another fundraiser on 30 April.”

Fundraising remains open until challenge day. You can donate here.