A hiker falls off of a cliff. A construction work becomes unconscious in an underground storage tank. These are just a couple of examples of rescue situations that require special harnesses. On behalf of Courageous Kids Climbing, RIT Safety Solutions LLC of Twinsburg, OH, has donated an EZ-Don rescue harness to the Boise Fire Department.
For the past couple of years, the firefighters of Boise have been working with Courageous Kids Climbing, an organization that provides free opportunities for children with special needs, physical or intellectual, to experience the various forms of rock climbing. Courageous Kids Climbing has two f the EZ-Don harnesses in their collection of equipment.
Jeff Riechmann is the event coordinator for Courageous Kids Climbing and said, “We use one of the EZ-Don harnesses at almost every one of our events. With this harness, we can take children and adults with physical challenges like cerebral palsy and raise them along the climbing walls so that they can see what it feels like to be a climber.”
But helping the kids to experience climbing isn’t all that the firefighters do. These events are an opportunity for the firefighters to work one-on-one with the kids, an experience that has a positive effect on the kids. Then when the climbing is finished, the kids are invited to a personal tour of the fire trucks.
Riechmann added, “On numerous occasions, I have had parents tell me that seeing a fire truck up close and personal at one of our events is the first time that their child has ever seen a fire truck up close.”
The firefighters benefit as well. In addition to the chance to practice some of their rope rescue skills, the firefighters also gain first-hand experience on how to work with kids who have special needs.
Riechmann wanted to somehow show the appreciation of his organization to the firefighters for their support. “The firefighters were becoming very familiar with the rescue harness, yet they did not have this type of harness in their inventory. They do have several other harnesses that are very similar, however. We felt it would be a great way to say thanks to give them one of these harnesses to add to their tool inventory.”
RIT Safety Solutions was contacted with the suggestion for the donation and thought it was a wonderful idea. Omar Jordan is the President of RIT Safety Solutions LLC and commented, “We have been a supporter of Courageous Kids Climbing since Jeff first came up with the concept for the program. We provided him with one of our harnesses and he used it at a couple of events and then provided us with some feedback on how the harness was working. He voiced some concerns with the ability to use the harness on children, which resulted in us making some alterations to make the harness fit better on smaller adults and children. We have since provided Jeff with one of our upgraded harnesses and he is using it at the climbing events and we are looking forward to his feedback. In the meantime, the engineers at RIT Safety Solutions are looking into designing a child size version of the harness.”
“This is one of those situations where everyone wins! Children with special needs who might not otherwise get to experience rock climbing, now get to experience it firsthand. Firefighters gain experience in using ropes as well as working with people with special needs. RIT Safety Solutions has an organization that serves as field testers for their equipment. The only thing that was lacking was having one of the EZ-Don harnesses on a Boise fire truck,” said Riechmann. “Thanks to our friends at RIT Safety Solutions, we’re going to fix that!”
In the meantime, the children of Boise with special needs can continue to look forward to climbing with some of Boise’s bravest!
The Boise Fire Department received the harness at a special ceremony on Thursday, October 27 at Station 7 located at 1666 Commerce Ave.
For more information visit www.ritsafetysolutions.com
