Riding to remember paramedics who died in the line of duty

Half a dozen Cochrane District EMS paramedics will be outside their Timmins base on Friday, pedalling road bikes but not getting anywhere.

The bikes will be stationary and they’ll be on them from 9:00am until 5:00pm staging a ride-a-thon, to raise money for the Canadian Paramedic Memorial Foundation.

Operations Commander Dan Contant says the foundation recognizes paramedics’ line of duty deaths, and is raising money to build a monument to them in Ottawa.

Every September as many as 200  medics – including Contant – ride bikes 525 kilometres from Toronto to Ottawa, raising awareness and money.

That’s what the event on Friday at 500 Algonquin Boulevard East will be supporting.

“North Dog Hot Dog Cart and Catering will be there donating 100% of their proceeds,” Contant points out. ”We’ll also be selling water bottles that we’ve created and we’ll be also taking cash donations.”

Besides being a paramedic, Contant has a special reason for supporting the foundation and the monument.

“My father was a flight paramedic with the Ministry of Health out of Timmins,” he says, “and he passed away after a plane crash in Chapleau in 1988.”