A Sackville softball team is raising money for a New Brunswick charity that provides service dogs to first responders after seeing firsthand the sacrifices emergency workers make.
The Dirt Squirts will take the field as the First Base Responders during the Swinging in Support charity softball tournament on August 7 and 8.
Each of the tournament’s 10 teams is raising money for a different charity. The amount each team raises helps determine tournament advantages.
For Breanne Wheaton, there wasn’t much debate about which cause to support.
“When our team decided we wanted to support an organization that helps first responders suffering with PTSD, we began researching organizations within Canada, specifically looking for Atlantic Canada,” said Wheaton. “It was a tough choice to make as there’s multiple great organizations, but in the end, we wanted to help a smaller organization so that our donation would make a greater impact.”
The team chose Canine Therapy for First Responders, a New Brunswick-based non-profit that provides certified service dogs and facility dog programs at no cost to first responders, Canadian Armed Forces members and veterans across Atlantic Canada.
The team hopes to raise $2,000, but for Wheaton, the fundraiser is personal.
Her brother, Brandan Estabrooks, has been a volunteer firefighter with Sackville Fire and Rescue for more than a decade, so she’s seen firsthand how unpredictable the job can be.
She still remembers one birthday dinner when his pager interrupted the celebration.
“I remember we all lined up in the kitchen to start serving, and his pager went off, and he had to leave for a fire call,” Wheaton said. “Then we all sat at my mom’s table, eating his birthday supper without him because he was gone for hours.
“I just always remember that moment of being like, ‘You don’t get to choose when you go. This is your birthday supper. We’re all here for you and now we’re sitting around a table eating it, and you’re off protecting our community.'”
Since then, she says she hears sirens differently.
“If I hear a siren, I’m just like, ‘Oh, is my brother there or is Jake there?’ You think of the people that you know and you think, ‘I hope they’re safe and I hope everything’s okay.'”
Jake Jones understands those demands from his own work.
An advanced care paramedic in Sackville and member of the First Base Responders team, Jones said many of the realities of emergency work aren’t always visible to the public.
“There’s definitely a lot of things that the realities of the job doesn’t really translate over to kind of the public eye,” Jones said. “We’re much more than just ambulance drivers. In a lot of cases, we can, for lack of better terms, bring the emergency department right to wherever the patient needs us.”
Jones said seeing traumatic events over and over can take a toll.
“Statistically speaking, most people will witness like two to four traumatic events in their lifetime, whereas medics and first responders on average will experience three to five per month,” he said. “The average lifetime of somebody working in paramedicine right now is only about five years. Even as a five-year medic, they’ll experience approximately 240 traumatic events in that five-year span. That leads to one in three medics who will develop PTSD during their career.”
For Estabrooks, volunteering as a firefighter means the challenges don’t end when the call is over.
“As a volunteer firefighter, some of the biggest challenges include not knowing when a call may come in,” he said. “The mental and physical stress that come with calls, heavy training and sometimes funding and staff shortages.”
Estabrooks said balancing emergency calls with work and family life is another challenge volunteer firefighters face.
“Trying to balance calls and training around work and family life can be tough,” Wheaton said. “Everyone has a full-time job. Everyone has friends and family and a personal life. It’s tough but it’s something that you have to push through and make sure that you do take vacation from both work and the fire department at times to spend time with your family.”
Estabrooks said organizations like Canine Therapy for First Responders can provide another avenue of support for people living with PTSD.
“I believe the canine therapy is a great cause for people that are suffering with things like PTSD,” he said. “I know people who have it and maybe don’t always take the right steps to get help. Service animals are a great asset to help someone get through some of the simple and more difficult day-to-day things that they need to do.”
The Swinging in Support tournament will be held August 7 and 8 in Sackville.
For the First Base Responders, the tournament is a chance to give something back to the people who are always there when the community needs them.
