A firefighter from Northern Alberta came to Humboldt with a cabinet full of fire department challenge coins as a way to show support in the aftermath of the Humboldt Broncos crash.
Harold Bulford came from a fire station in Bezanson, Alta, located 30 minutes east of Grande Prairie. His station wanted to do something, so they contacted nearby fire departments asking for challenge coins. In the end, 34 departments gave coins and three gave shoulder patches.
“That’s what we were hoping: to get a whole bunch of coins, bring them down and show the brotherhood at the fire department that they’re not alone,” the fire captain said.
Bulford travelled to Humboldt, Tisdale, Nipawin and Zenon Park to present each fire department with a cabinet.
“This whole trip’s pretty emotional because being an emergency responder, I can’t imagine what they were going through at the scene or what they’re going through now, dealing with the impact of that,” he said. “We just felt we wanted to do something for them, show them that there’s a lot of other people rooting for them and helping them through this.”
Bulford said he was pleased with the reaction at the Humboldt Fire Department
“They were really happy to receive it and I was really happy to meet the fire chief there.”
The brotherhood of firefighters is the strongest one Bulford could imagine
“I can go anywhere in the world, stop at the fire hall and tell them you’re a firefighter or a volunteer and they’ll welcome you, show you around and look after you,” he said. “It’s worldwide. It’s pretty impressive.”
Challenge coins are a military tradition that is given to young officers as a challenge to do better in their service. Challenge coins now are shared among different emergency service departments as a sign of camaraderie and support, says Humboldt and District Fire Department Chief, Mike Kwasnica.
