North Saanich firefighter extinguishes pandemic fears with 166 paintings – and counting
Anna never expected to find herself on this path, which began at a party with a dare.
“The discussion was that there were no females in the department and ‘Why don’t you do it?’” Anna recalls being asked before the person she was talking to added: “I dare you!”
When Anna was younger, she’d wanted to be a hippie and was then working as a hairstylist. She was being dared to become a firefighter.
When I ask how she responded to such a remarkable dare, she answers with a laugh: “I signed up!”
Not only did she sign up to become a firefighter, Anna did all the training.
“I’ll do a dare!” Anna smiles. “I’m always up for a challenge.”
Anna became the first female firefighter in the department, launching a 30-year career.
“I’ve just always loved it,” she says matter-of-factly.
Which brings us back to this path she’s walking along, and an expression of love (a sign with a heart) that Anna felt inspired to paint and post on a fence at the start of the pandemic.
“It was for all the essential workers,” she says. “To say thank you.”
But as COVID-19 kept up, Anna kept close to home, and kept on painting signs.
“And my sense of humour is a little bit off,” she smiles.
She started hanging her silly signs along the fence between her house and a public path that leads to the Patricia Bay beach along West Saanich Road.
One of the signs shows two dogs – one has a cone around its neck and the other is wearing the cone around its backend. The dog says, “Sorry, I’m socially distancing.”
“It’s OK if you fall apart,” Anna reads another brightly painted sign. “Tacos fall apart and we still love them.”
Another sign which features a picture of a UFO asks, “What if this quarantine is just aliens fattening us up for the big harvest?”
“If you say gullible really slowly it sounds like oranges,” Anna reads before turning to me and smirking as I start saying the word slowly.
“To just hear the laughter [of people passing the signs] has been amazing,” Anna says, adding that sometimes the laughing is so loud she can hear it inside her house.
The positive response inspired Anna to paint 166 signs – and counting.
When the pandemic is finally over, she’s planning to sell all the paintings and donate the money to the local food bank.
Which brings us back to why Anna followed through with that dare. More than battling flaming foes, or operating monstrous trucks, Anna says she found firefighting is about one thing.
“The first word that comes to mind is empathy,” Anna says. “I like people and I want to help people.”
Just as she’ll pick-up a hose and run towards the danger the rest of us flee from, when the pandemic hit, Anna picked up a brush and attempted to extinguish our fears with a little fun.
“In such an icky time, I wanted to bring a little joy.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I just can't believe that it took so long': Body found in wreckage 3 months after deadly fire
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
No proof man lied to brother about number of kittens born in litter, B.C. tribunal rules
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec police hand out hundreds of tickets to Hells Angels and other bikers before 'first run' meeting
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Feds hope to table foreign interference legislation next week: LeBlanc
Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to table legislation this week to help the federal government address foreign interference, but he wouldn't say whether the proposal will include a foreign agent registry.
Auston Matthews skates ahead of Game 7, status unclear with season on the line
Centre Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs hasn't been ruled out of tonight's Game 7 against the Boston Bruins.
Snakes almost on a plane: U.S. TSA discovers a bag with small snakes in passenger's pants
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.