GAINESVILLE - A team of a Hall County firefighters that competed last month in the Scott Firefighter Combat Challenge is seeking some sponsors after they were successful enough to go farther than the next level.
The team's timing qualified them for the World Championship, according to Deputy Fire Chief Chad Black.
"The times that they established actually qualified for them the World [challenge]. They can go to the Nationals, but they don't have to go to the Nationals. Their time was good enough that they could go straight to the World Competition."
This was the first time Hall County had a team in the competition, and the team also placed third overall in the challenge last month.
However, despite being able to surpass the National Challenge, the group, which consists of Battalion Chief Rob Sanders, Lieutenant BJ Williams, Sgt. Seth Satterfield, Sgt. Kevin Anderson and Firefighter/EMT Adrian Hamilton, hope to still go as a practice.
"I would like to send them to the Nationals as a practice, and then be able to go at the end of the month to Montgomery and then compete in the World, but we're looking for some sponsorships right now to do that," said Black.
There are a few sponsors interested, but Black said more are needed to help send the team to both the National and World competitions.
"What we're looking for is someone that would like to sponsor our team for the Fire Fighter Combat Challenge so throughout the year, and starting next year they can travel a little bit... we would like to send them to at least four, five or six times to different [competition] locations throughout the year so the more [they] practice, hopefully, the better [they] get," said Black.
"It would be for travel expenses, hotels... we're estimating, to be able to sponsor our team and then, next year, we're going to host the Nationals here in Hall County... and the person that sponsors our team would hopefully be our platinum sponsor for that event next year - and we're thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of $18,000 to $25,000 to completely cover the cost of the team, getting them their gear, and provide this person with being our Platinum Sponsor for next year."
For more information about sponsoring the event, please contact Chad Black at the Hall County Fire Department at (770) 531-6838.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2015/9/334234/hall-co-fire-fighters-take-combat-challenge-to-next-level-seek-sponsors