Climbing for Sam

Pullman+Fire+Department+personnel+pose+for+a+photo+during+the+23rd+Annual+Scott+Firefighters+Stairclimb+in+the+Columbia+Center+Building%2C+Seattle%2C+March+9.

Pullman Fire Department personnel pose for a photo during the 23rd Annual Scott Firefighters Stairclimb in the Columbia Center Building, Seattle, March 9.

He’s a WSU student who fights fires. Now he’s fighting cancer.

An annual fight against blood cancer became a fight to help Pullman Fire Department’s 21-year-old Sam Logar, who is battling Hodgkin lymphoma.

On March 9, five Pullman firefighters ornamented in full protective gear draped with anchor-like oxygen tanks trekked up 69 flights of stairs at Seattle’s Columbia Center tower and raised more than $3,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

“We all climbed in support of him and for him,” Pullman Firefighter Andrew Chiavaras said.

Logar had planned to endure the 788-foot vertical stair climb, but a diagnosis in December ended that aspiration. However, the news of cancer didn’t stop Logar from attending the 23rd Annual Scott Firefighter Stairclimb.

“Due to the fact that he was already receiving treatment, he was strongly advised by the doctors that he was not going to be able to compete,” Chiavaras said.

Event officials allowed Logar inside the Columbia Center tower as an honorary member of the five-man team. Logar got the chance to hang out with his teammates and witness nearly 1,800 other firefighters from around the world begin their 1,311-step journey.

The Pullman firefighters wore helmets that displayed a picture of Sam that read “For Sam.” They also sported shirts that read “Climbing for Sam.”

“It really showed that family atmosphere of the fire department,” Chiavaras said.

Pullman Firefighter Ryan Palmberg viewed the experience as an opportunity to appreciate the brotherhood of fire departments coming together for a collective purpose.

“Getting to see everybody come together in one place for a good cause was pretty awesome,” Palmberg said.

Palmberg admired how Logar spent time with the crew before and after the stair climb. He said the moral support was much needed, as it energized the Pullman firefighters to reach the top.

“Sam was there with us the whole time, which was pretty cool,” Palmberg said.

The Pullman firefighters trained for the Seattle stair climb in Webster Hall on the WSU campus.

While the initial goal was to raise money for those impacted by Leukemia and Lymphoma, the goal to aid a friend in need became the energizing motivator when Logar learned he had cancer.

“That’s when we got more involved and tried to raise more money,” Firefighter Roy Godina said. “We started training a little harder as well.”

Godina said although the climb was no walk in the park, he hopes to do it again next year and the year after that.

“It’s something I plan to do until I’m no longer able to climb,” he said.

This year’s Scott Firefighter Stairclimb raised almost $2 million overall.

But as Godina put it, no monetary value can truly illustrate the amount of care he and his fellow firefighters have for Coug Sam Logar.

“It definitely hit home,” Godina said. “It was challenging absolutely, but in the end it was something we did from the heart.”