Mt. Everest on a StairMaster: Halifax woman raises money for charity a step at a time
This summer, Bell is raising money for organizations that support women who have experienced sexual assault or are fleeing situations involving intimate partner violence.
For every dollar donated to her GoFundMe campaign, 'Stairs for Support,' Bell promises to climb five floors on a StairMaster machine, until she reaches the equivalent height of Mt. Everest.
'I wanted to set a really high standard for myself and I kind of thought, 'What's tall and big that I could climb,' right?'' she laughs.
And she's already two-thirds of the way there — but at a whopping height of 29,000 feet, she'll need more donations to reach the summit.
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'You got work, you got friends — you got your own life right?' Bell says.' But I always found there's a little time in the day to help someone somewhere.'
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Stairs for Support is already making an impact, with donations made to Adsum House and Avalon, which supports survivors of sexual assault.
'(Donations) would go to our general, everyday food allowances at the house, to help us in providing food and snacks, and also some activities for the people that live in our shelter and in some of our housing locations,' says Kathy McNab, fund development officer with Adsum for Women and Children.
'Every single month the demand seems to be greater in the last two years.'
McNab adds that about 80 per cent of the people they help are escaping situations of domestic and intimate partner violence.
'It's great that people are more aware of it now that issue is there, and yes, it is increasing,' McNab says. 'You know, when people are struggling to put food on the table, it's going to create some tensions in a family. So, if violence is a part of that, it's going to increase for sure.'
Which means making any donation — big or small — means the world.
'It motivated me, not only to raise money for these centres, but also survivors,' Bell says 'Letting them know they're not alone.'
Watch the video above for the full story.
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Global News
a day ago
- Global News
Mt. Everest on a StairMaster: Halifax woman raises money for charity a step at a time
As demand at women's shelters steadily climbs across Nova Scotia, so does Annika Bell. This summer, Bell is raising money for organizations that support women who have experienced sexual assault or are fleeing situations involving intimate partner violence. For every dollar donated to her GoFundMe campaign, 'Stairs for Support,' Bell promises to climb five floors on a StairMaster machine, until she reaches the equivalent height of Mt. Everest. 'I wanted to set a really high standard for myself and I kind of thought, 'What's tall and big that I could climb,' right?'' she laughs. And she's already two-thirds of the way there — but at a whopping height of 29,000 feet, she'll need more donations to reach the summit. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'You got work, you got friends — you got your own life right?' Bell says.' But I always found there's a little time in the day to help someone somewhere.' Story continues below advertisement Stairs for Support is already making an impact, with donations made to Adsum House and Avalon, which supports survivors of sexual assault. '(Donations) would go to our general, everyday food allowances at the house, to help us in providing food and snacks, and also some activities for the people that live in our shelter and in some of our housing locations,' says Kathy McNab, fund development officer with Adsum for Women and Children. 'Every single month the demand seems to be greater in the last two years.' McNab adds that about 80 per cent of the people they help are escaping situations of domestic and intimate partner violence. 'It's great that people are more aware of it now that issue is there, and yes, it is increasing,' McNab says. 'You know, when people are struggling to put food on the table, it's going to create some tensions in a family. So, if violence is a part of that, it's going to increase for sure.' Which means making any donation — big or small — means the world. 'It motivated me, not only to raise money for these centres, but also survivors,' Bell says 'Letting them know they're not alone.' Watch the video above for the full story.
CTV News
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Bell, Telus continue to cast blame for 911 outage in Manitoba
Bell and Telus continue to spar over who is responsible for a 911 outage earlier this year. Two of the largest telecom companies in Canada continue to point fingers at each other over a 911 outage that left dozens of Manitobans unable to reach emergency services, including the family of a man who suffered a fatal heart attack. The outage took place on March 22 and lasted for 38 hours and 45 minutes. Telus has said 59 people tried calling 911 during the outage, placing a total of 177 calls. None got through. Among those 177 calls were the desperate pleas for help from the family of Dean Switzer. Switzer suffered a heart attack at his home outside Fisher Branch on March 23. His family and friends—all Telus customers—tried calling 911 about 18 times but were unable to get through. READ MORE: 'Hang up, try later': Manitoba family unable to contact 911 during deadly heart attack In the months since the outage, Telus and Bell have filed reports and issued several statements to media – both placing the blame on the other. The most recent of which came on June 28, when Bell—CTV's parent company—filed its incident report with the CRTC. Bell—Manitoba's 911 network provider—said one of its 911 routes required a reset, which took four minutes to complete. When resets are required, Bell said it has a second route through which carriers can send 911 calls. It noted no other carriers had problems placing 911 calls the night of the outage. After the reset, Bell claimed Telus stopped sending 911 calls through Bell. 'It is only when Telus took action on its side of the network that calls then resumed,' Bell said in the report. 'This indicates the underlying issue as to why Telus ceased sending traffic following the reset is likely within Telus' network, as it was resolved through actions on the Telus side of the network.' Bell alleged Telus did not have a proper fail-safe in place and did not appropriately report the severity of the incident. Telus previously issued a report to the CRTC saying a technician was sent out to investigate the outage the night it happened. 'The Telus technician who attended to the outage did not follow the accepted protocols between Bell and Telus to alert about an outage affecting 911 circuits and did not follow Telus' standard practices by failing to escalate the issue with the company,' the report reads. The technician has since been disciplined, Telus said. In a statement to CTV News sent Thursday, Telus said there is 'no evidence' to suggest its 911 services would have been disrupted had the initial Bell outage not taken place. '…action was required by both Bell and Telus to bring Telus' 911 connectivity back online, as it was the sequencing of the reset that fully restored service,' the company said in a statement. 'We have been transparent about the process failure on our side, acknowledging that our outage notification procedures with Bell were not properly followed.' -With files from CTV's Danton Unger and Devon McKendrick
Global News
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Industrial trawlers have scoured an area larger than Ireland off B.C. coast, group says
An environmental group is raising a red flag about the damage it says a fishing fleet is causing off the B.C. coast. Pacific Wild unveiled an interactive map on Friday, revealing what they say is the extensive and largely hidden impact of industrial trawling in B.C. The organization said that over the last 13 years, nine factory trawlers have collectively scoured an area larger than Ireland—totalling 89,700 square kilometres—trawling both the seafloor and midwater of ecologically sensitive offshore habitats. Bottom trawling is when heavy nets are dragged directly across the ocean floor, picking up and impacting species that live there. Kevin Lester, a geographic information systems specialist who worked on the project, said the idea came about due to the decline of species off the B.C. coast. Story continues below advertisement 'We found these nine giant trawlers that have been operating in B.C. for a few years now and we investigated their impact,' he told Global News. 'The timing of their arrival on the B.C. coast does correlate with some declines in the fisheries in the North Atlantic, so it's probably a case of following the money or following where these vessels can be used at their full potential.' Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Among the different kinds of fishing vessels, Lester said trawlers like these are the hardest to find details about. He said that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) stopped publishing information about them in 2016 and Pacific Wild had to spend thousands to get the data that showed they were all built in Europe and then moved to B.C. waters about 15 years ago. 1:42 New report says B.C. trawlers are dumping tens of thousands of Chinook salmon 'They focus most of their effort along the continental shelf, particularly in the Strait of Juan de Fuca,' Lester said. Story continues below advertisement Lester used the data to create a graphic showing the areas where the trawlers concentrate. He said the issue is that the area is in the migratory path of Chinook salmon, which are the primary food source of B.C.'s resident orcas. 'So as the Chinook migrate from their spawning grounds out into the ocean and up to the Gulf of Alaska and back down the continental shelf, they are hit the entire way and they are as they leave and as they come back in the heaviest amount of trawling,' Lester added. 'So the numbers of bycatch that we see from these large trawlers is not a surprise given where the Chinook are.' 1:57 Alaskan Chinook salmon fishery closed by U.S. federal judge While the trawlers are not targeting Chinook, their massive nets can be indiscriminate and in recent years, DFO has confirmed tens of thousands of Chinook have been caught as bycatch. Story continues below advertisement Pacific Wild said it would like to see more transparency about these trawlers in B.C.'s water and better oversight of fishing practices. Global News reached out to DFO for comment but did not hear back.
