Hot dates for the wall

Looking for hot calendar dates next year?

Tākaka Volunteer Fire Brigade is turning up its fundraising heat with a 2025 calendar emblazoned with its members fully kitted and sleeveless.

The calendar is part of the brigade’s fundraiser for Neil and Kyle Gardiner, Sam Goffriller and Grant Lawrence to burn through the pain at the World Firefighter Games in the USA in October 2025.

The quad, named the 39ers, is gearing up for the international competition after its reign of fire at the National Firefighter Challenge in May with a hard-fought team relay victory.

Fundraising manager Tash Rattray says the crew took a bit of convincing when the calendar idea was brought up, before hitting the photoshoot scene.

“It’s the sort of calendar where you don’t have to take your tops off, but you’ve got to take a comical side like the normal Australian or American firefighter calendar, so we put our own sort of spin on it,” she says.

“They had a lot of fun… before the end of the day, they were already talking about how we’re going to do [a 2026] calendar, which is pretty exciting.”

Tash says the pin-ups were captured by Tākaka photographer Brent Topine at the brigade and local parks and Fujifilm Nelson supported the endeavour.

“We managed to get the photo shoot done in a day which was awesome,” she says.

“On the back of the calendars we have some outtakes of shots that didn’t quite make the cut, but we thought they were quite comical.”

Tash says around $45,000 needed to be stoked up for the 39ers American exploit and $7500 had so far been garnered through raffles, bake sales, tree felling and other donations.

She says a quiz night on 28 December, a bingo night on 6 January, both at Pohara Hall and a casino night on 15 March and other fundraisers also have the potential to turbocharge the tally.

The $20 calendars are available at Golden Bay Information Centre, Golden Bay Hammer Hardware, ITM Tākaka, Good as Good Cafe, and Liquorland Golden Bay and by email: tashrattray17@gmail.com.