The community literally pulled together recently at the third annual Fire Truck Pull n’ Play Water Day, hosted by the Indian River County Firefighters Local 2201, Walking Tree Brewery and the event’s beneficiary, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation.
St. Baldrick’s Indian River hosts four events throughout the year to raise awareness and funds for childhood cancer research. Proceeds from the Fire Truck Pull, the upcoming Nov. 3 Rays of Hope Memorial Golf Outing, the Cure Kids Cancer Gala on Feb. 23 and the Big Shave in March will all go toward the local fundraising goal.
On Saturday, teams of up to 10 people threw everything they had into the ultimate strength competition – playing “tug of war” with a 40,000-pound fire truck – with the goal of being the fastest team to pull the fire truck a distance of 100 feet.
“All of these events are awareness events. We want to keep it fresh in people’s minds. We may only recognize cancer for one month, but the families of these kids deal with it on a daily basis,” said Missy Elward, who for the past nine years has organized local St. Baldrick’s events with Frank Mannino. “Our goal is to raise $200,000 with all the events.”
With only 4 percent of U.S. federal funding dedicated to childhood cancer research, St. Baldrick’s founders were looking for a way to increase research in that field.
“St. Baldrick’s is second only to the U.S. government in funding children’s cancer research,” noted Elward. “I continue to do this because we have not found a cure for all childhood cancers yet and there are kids and families still having to fight this ugly disease.”
More children are lost to cancer in the U.S. than any other disease. Worldwide, a child is diagnosed every two minutes, according to the St. Baldrick’s website.
“We’re here to create awareness for St. Baldrick’s childhood cancer research and to raise some money so we can keep on helping kids out,” said John O’Connor, IRC Firefighters’ Association president.
Families cheered on all 10 teams as they took two runs trying for the fastest time. Last year’s champions, the Indian River Rugby Club men’s team, once again took home first place with a time of 19 seconds. The Volunteer Firefighters took second place with 20.41 seconds.
In a few special races, Team Chelsea and Quentin, along with pullers from all the other teams, crossed the line in 13.56 seconds, demonstrating that pulling together is the only way to beat cancer. Team Strong WILLed closed out the afternoon with another big push from the crowd, tackling the clock in 10.44 seconds much as the team’s namesake, Will Alvey, did with his cancer.
Walking Tree held its annual Family Day in conjunction with the truck pull this year, adding water slides, a bounce house and dunk tank, food trucks and a D.J. to the festivities.
“Family Day is a day to bring families from around the community together and say thank you for supporting us,” said Amanda Martin, Walking Tree tasting room manager and event coordinator. “It just made sense to host Family Day in conjunction with the Truck Pull.”
For more information, visit stbaldricks.org.