Forty-one stories; 82 flights; 789 stairs; the steep climb three Westport Island firefighters are volunteering to race, is enough deter most anyone. The fact they will be wearing turnout gear and carrying a 40-lbs. air pack only adds to the challenge.
Paul Bonyun, Libby Mooney, and Jason Abbott are the members of the Westport Island Fire Dept. team participating in the American Lung Association’s Fight For Air Climb in Boston this coming February.
The ALA holds the climbs across the country to support their mission to improve lung health and prevent lung disease, according to its website. The fundraising goal for the upcoming Boston event is $365,000, with $64,830.42 already raised with a little over 30 days to go.
Originally planning to go as part of the Portland Fire Dept. team, Bonyun said he’d chosen to do the fundraiser not only for his own health and fitness, but for the ALA’s efforts to improve air quality and people’s health.
Now having formed the Westport Island team with Abbott and Mooney, they’ve already raised $1085 – more than double the team’s goal of $500, according to the ALA website.
“It’s a good bonding thing,” Mooney said. “I wish we could get more people” to participate, she said.
“It’s not just a firefighter thing,” Abbott said. At the event, individuals and teams will climb the stairs of One Boston Place and compete for individual, team, and fundraising awards.
Firefighters have their own division, with strict requirements about the gear they have to wear to compete, according to the website.
Luckily, participants get to take the elevator down, Mooney joked.
None of the Westport Island team have done the Fight For Air Climb before, but Mooney has competed as a swimming member in the triathlon team fundraiser Tri For A Cure.
“I’m also a cancer survivor, which is why I do Tri For A Cure,” she said.
The team has been training in preparation for their ascents. Abbott runs daily, often running hills, he said. Libby said she trains on the 60 stairs at Lincoln Academy, where she teaches.
“It’s so important to take care of yourself, work out, eat right,” Bonyun said. He has learned just how important those things can be, after recovering from being struck by a tree in a wood-cutting accident in 2006.
After the tree he was cutting split, it hit him on the left side of his head and drove him into a stonewall. Bonyun was hospitalized for two months, underwent a year of physical therapy, and had a long, slow road to recovery.
“I remember cutting the notch in the tree, and two weeks later I woke up in Lewiston,” he said.
“Even after a year and a half, to get to the end of the driveway was a struggle,” Bonyun said.
Now, six years after the accident, Bonyun runs his stairs at home, and said he’s currently able to run 1000 stairs (really, 1000 up and 1000 down, but he doesn’t count the down toward his total) in about 22 minutes.
Bonyun is still a part of the fire department but no longer goes into burning buildings. He likened his role of assisting in incident command and communications to that of a chief’s aide.
Voluntarily giving up his Emergency Medical Technician license was “tough, but I had to do it,” Bonyun said. He gave it up due to the possibility of a seizure – for his own safety, the safety of a patient, and for the liability to the department, he said.
“Attitude helps a big deal in this,” Bonyun said.
“We all have limitations, but Paul just deals with his better than most of us do,” Mooney said.
The Fight For Air Climb event takes place on Sat., Feb. 2, 2013 at 9 a.m. at One Boston Place, Boston.
To make a donation for the Westport Island Fire Dept. team, visit www.lung.org/pledge-events/ma/boston-climb-fy13/ and click the link to “Donate to a Team.”