Montréal, 13 May 2014 - The Service de sécurité incendie de Montréal (SIM) and its partners have pledged to sponsor some 50 elementary schools on the Island of Montréal in conjunction with the Grand défi Pierre Lavoie (GDPL). A total of 45 teams composed of firefighters, employees and managers from various units within the department will be directly involved with the children in the metropolis.

The SIM joined forces with the GDPL in order to promote healthy lifestyle habits. Each team selected a school in its sector, where it will focus all its efforts. SIM staff will get involved in two ways. In May, SIM teams will travel to their respective schools to meet the children and stage sporting activities intended to encourage participants to accumulate energy cubes.

In a subsequent phase, the teams will carry out fundraising campaigns with the objective of presenting an enormous box full of new sports equipment to the sponsored schools. Don’t be surprised to see firefighters collecting proceeds at a street corner near you!

SIM Fire Chief François Massé cites the reasons for his involvement and that of the fire department: “Firefighters and department staff are natural ambassadors for healthy lifestyle habits. Our involvement with thousands of young people allows us to forge ties with the community and transmit the values that are dear to us – and even essential to successful performance of our duties.” Five members of the fire department will form the SIM team that will take part in the 1000-kilometre leg of the GDPL cycling tour next June.

The SIM was able to carry out this initiative thanks to the participation of its invaluable partners. A warm word of thanks goes out to the Association des pampers de Montréal and the Centre de services financiers des pompiers as well as the Caisse du Réseau municipal for throwing their support behind this project from the very outset.