ACT firefighters will climb the elevation of Mt Everest up Mt Ainslie to raise funds for Lifeline Canberra on Saturday (March 19).
In teams of five, each firefighter will walk 36km – or four round trips – up and down the mountain while wearing breathing apparatus.
All funds raised will go to Lifeline Canberra, which exists to support people in crisis and helps save the lives of those experiencing thoughts of suicide.
ACT fire and rescue (ACTF&R) chief officer Matthew Mavity said participating firefighters are excited to be supporting such a worthy cause.
“Being a firefighter is a physically and emotionally challenging career, which is one of the reasons ACTF&R prioritises the normalising of discussions around mental health.
“Lifeline Canberra is a fantastic organisation to support as they truly change lives by helping the Canberra community.”
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![Teacher Vanessa Jones has been living in Higgins since 2001, and while she loves the area, she says she is “fed up” with the neglectful ACT government.
The Higgins shops have been completely abandoned, says Vanessa, preventing the opportunity for residents to have a community-centred space to socialise.
They only received bins nine months ago, she says, and requests for a water station and repairs to the bus station have gone unanswered.
“It’s very, very slow,” says Vanessa.
“I asked for the zebra crossing on Fullagar [Crescent] to be repainted, and we had to wait about six or nine months.
“That’s just such a long time… we pay a lot of rates.”
Vanessa says assistance from the government only seems to go to communities with time-rich and assertive communities, leaving places such as Higgins, where the majority of households have both adults working full-time and English may not be the first language of the family, at an automatic disadvantage.
“If you’ve got two people working, paying a mortgage, raising two or three kids, they don’t have the time,” says Vanessa.
Vanessa says the lack of attention quieter places such as Higgins is receiving is starting to look a lot like favouritism.
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