Fire department gears up for curling fun spiel

Amherst Daily News

By Chris Dowbiggin

AMHERST- The Amherst Fire Department will be hosting their 10th annual curling fun spiel at the Amherst Curling Club from Feb. 18 to Feb. 20.
The 2011 event marks the 10th year of fire departments and other departments of work from all over Cumberland County and southern New Brunswick sending representing teams to play in the weekend-long curling tournament to raise money for the Nova Scotia Firefighters Burn Treatment Society.
Ken MacKenzie is a volunteer with the Amherst Fire Hall, and a member of the Amherst Fire Fighting Burn Treatment Committee. He said the fun spiel is a major highlight for the fire department each year.
“It’s very important because it’s associated with fire in the sense that if you’re in a fire and you get burned. This burn unit is very important to us and we’re always very glad to help them out,” said MacKenzie.
The weekend is meant to be a fun experience for all fire departments and other associations to come together. The event is informal, so anyone can put together a team and play, even if they never have before.
The Tournament originally got its inspiration when two members of the Amherst Fire Department were burned badly in an explosion in 1983.
The two men were sent to the burn treatment centre in Halifax. Bob Hanley was a member of the fire department at the time, and a current member of the Amherst Firefighters Committee. He heard there was a newly established burn treatment society in the city.
“I went down there and I knew some of the guys, so I got we got to talking and I said ‘You know, this is a part of the business we’re in. Gee, maybe we should start something and start supporting the burn units?’ and that’s when it got started,” said Hanley.
Hanley contacted the Nova Scotia Burn Treatment Society, and eventually became a director.
“Since then we’ve had all sort of events and fundraisers going on to raise money for the burn units. And it originally started with helping out these firefighters, but then it grew to help everyone else,” said Hanley.
The fun spiel attracts anywhere from 28 to 40 teams a year, and raises anywhere from 3 to $5,000 dollars from all the teams and additional donations from the community.
“We managed to raise about $3,500 dollars last year, and since it’s come a long way since the beginning, We’re able to donate a good bit of money every year and it makes them very happy,” said MacKenzie.
But the real astounding numbers have come over the course of the history of the Nova Scotia Burn Treatment Society province wide donations, with an estimated $1.7 million going towards burn care since 1983.
“That all goes strictly to burn care. It works out very well,” said Hanley.
“The society will always need funding. This way they can just go to us right afterwards and get their money just like that. It’s very well organized.”
Hanley expects the fun spiel to be no less successful than it is every – and every year it never fails to be successful.
“Everything is just so positive. Every cent we makes goes back to burn care and treatment. The public and the fire departments back us up one hundred per cent, and it seems to me it picks up more and more every year,” said Hanley.