Help our First Responders!!

Good day,

For those of you who don’t know me and I hope this gets to a lot of people who don’t. My name is Kyle Van de Kamp, I am an airport firefighter and volunteer structural firefighter in the community of Labrador West in Newfoundland & Labrador. I am writing this to explain why I am asking for your help. Please bear with me as I tell you a little story here:

So, as many of us know there are times in our lives where we get into ruts need to make a change but we need that little push. Six months ago I found myself in such a place. I needed things to change for myself. At the time I didn’t know what or how to do it.

I came across a posting by Dwayne “The Rock’ Johnson about his ‘Project Rock’ www.projectrock.com . I really liked the message he was putting out there. “We are all a project” I really liked that because in some small way we all try and improve ourselves. I have always believed we should always keep learning and keep bettering ourselves. But for yourself not for anyone else.

So, I knew I need a project/goal to work toward now I just needed to figure out what that was. Well thankfully I have a pretty awesome family and one of them Emily Fisk has last year completed a climb of Machu Picchu last year and is this year completing a climb of Mount Kilimanjaro. For both of these climbs she has raised money for a wonderful charity the “Ride for Dad” campaign which raises money for Prostate Cancer research. Here is the link http://dreammountains.com/dreamteam/emily-fisk-2017/ really folks this is a great charity to donate too.

So I myself had been planning a trip to Greece for this coming year and Emily’s climbs gave me a wonderful idea. So this coming May I will be doing a hike of Mount Olympus in Greece. For a huge mythology geek like myself it will a great adventure. Now I am by no means a skilled mountaineer but have done much reading and there are plenty of paths for casual hikers.

So now finally and I appreciate you having read this far we come to why I am doing this. I am attempting to raise $10,000 for the Canadian Critical Incident Stress Foundation. This is a wonderful organization that I have recently discovered which helps Firefighters, Police, EMS, Military, Corrections, Court officers and their families and communities deal not only with the stress that these professions can bring but as we are all very much aware and saddened is the number of Emergency Personnel who have taken their own lives because of the stress of their professions. This organization created a wonderful place called CAMP F.A.C.E.S (Family and Children of Emergency Services). They support the families of fallen Emergency Personnel. They brings the families together to grieve, help them start to heal and find support in other families who have suffered similar loss. The CCISF helps educate not only Emergency Personnel but their families in how to recognize the signs of stress in their co-workers and family members so it can be caught earlier and help can be given.

The members of this organization are from the President down are all volunteer and they are completely dependent on donations for their funding. I really can’t say enough good things about this organization and the work they are doing.

So yes I am asking for donations to help this organization continue to do the good work they are doing. But I have always believed that leading by example is the best way. So starting this Friday Jan 13th I will be donating $50 from every pay from now until I return from Greece. Now I am not asking everyone to do this. Just donate what you can, believe me every donation will help.

Thank you