If you have spent any time on the lot here at Bucars, you may have seen an interesting sight: a bright red fire truck, formerly part of the Calgary Fire Department’s fleet. Let us introduce you to Ferdinand the Fire Truck and learn about the ties between Bucars and the worldwide charitable works of the Rotary organization. This story was written by local Calgary Rotarian, Madeleine King.
Ferdinand Meets Barbara
Meet Ferdinand the fire truck. Ferdinand had worked hard in Calgary for a long time. In fact, he couldn’t even remember when he was shiny and new. He had loved his time helping to fight fires. And the firemen had always been happy with the work he did with them. But now they had decided he was too old for them. He was sad when they chose a new fire truck to replace him. He wanted to go on being useful. He couldn’t imagine his life without fighting fires.
One day a Calgary lady called Barbara was visiting the country of Guatemala. It’s a country in the skinny bit of land between North America and South America. Just below Mexico on the map here:
At their Rotary club, a man called Marco told her they didn’t have any fire trucks in his city. Not even one fire truck. Marco’s city was too poor to be able to pay for firemen, so all the firemen worked at other jobs. When there was a fire, they dropped whatever they were doing for their jobs, and ran to fight the fire. They had lots of buckets. They would fill them with water and throw the water at the fire and hope it would put the fire out.
Marco wanted to help his city and asked Barbara if there were fire trucks in Calgary. She said: “Yes there are hundreds of fire trucks in Calgary”. They asked: “When a fire truck is old and ready to be replaced in Calgary, can you give us that fire truck please?” Now we need to understand why Marco asked Barbara for a fire truck. When Barbara was a little girl, a long time ago, she loved school and she was a favourite with the teachers because she worked so hard. Barbara was always helping others and she always had a smile on her face. When she went to university, she loved learning all about the world and how it worked. And just like at school, Barbara worked hard and was always helping others and she always had a smile on her face.
When she left university she was a geophysicist. That meant she knew about how the rocks and the earth and the mountains and the rivers and lakes were made, and she could make maps of what happens under the earth. And that meant she could help figure out where to find gas for your car! Do you get gas for your car sometimes at a Shell gas station? Well they hire people like Barbara to look around the world to find where that gas might be hiding under the earth.
Barbara moved to Calgary, where the flat prairies meet the Rocky Mountains. Calgary is the Canadian city where big oil and gas companies work. There are lots of people like Barbara working in Calgary. So for many years Barbara travelled round the world working for a company like Shell and looking for gas, so people could drive their cars and get their groceries delivered in a truck and fly to lovely places for their vacations. When she was an old lady with 5 grandchildren she finally stopped working and retired. She decided to use all her knowledge and experience to help poor people in other countries. She joined Rotary in Calgary where there was a whole group of people like her.
As a Rotarian, she was part of over a million people around the world doing the same kinds of things to help other people. She organized schools for the poor children in other countries and libraries so they could read books and special cooking pots to help them cook good meals to keep them healthy. And one of the places she did all that good work was in Guatemala.
Now you know how Marco met Barbara. And how he had the chance to ask her for a fire truck! Barbara didn’t know how she was going to ask the fire department in Calgary to give Rotary a fire truck. And she didn’t know how a Calgary fire truck would make the long journey all the way south through the United States and Mexico all the way to Guatemala.
Luckily there was another Rotarian named Madeleine in Calgary. And she knew the fire chief. They had already worked together helping poor people in other countries. And she knew the mayor of the city because they had worked together making it a better community.
From left: Fire Chief, Barbara, Rotary Club President Eric, Madeleine and Fire Department helper.
Barbara asked Madeleine. Madeleine asked the fire chief. The fire chief asked the mayor.
Everyone wanted to help the people of Guatemala so they could put out more fires. So they asked Ferdinand “Would you like to help more people fight fires?” When Ferdinand the Fire Truck heard that the fire chief had found a new home for him he was so happy. They told him that in his new home he would be able to go on helping firemen fight fires for many more years.
When they told him that his new home would be Guatemala he couldn’t imagine that place. When they told him no-one spoke English there he was a bit worried. They told him everyone spoke Spanish there. He thought it wouldn’t be too hard for him to learn to understand them. So he quickly learned bomberos. That is Spanish for firemen. And he liked the musical sound of the word … bomberos!! And most important, he knew he would be helping firemen – and all firemen everywhere are working in the same way to fight fires. So he knew he’d like them. And he was sure they’d like working with him.
Chapter 2: Ferdinand Comes to Bucars
Well this is Ferdinand the Fire Truck’s 2nd chapter – but it isn’t at all what we imagined it would be! Ferdinand thought he was about to leave for his long journey to Guatemala. Instead he just sat still for quite a number of weeks wondering what was going to happen to him. The other fire trucks on the lot told him all about their fires and helping their fire fighters rescue folks from buildings. Exactly the excitement that Ferdinand was looking forward to being part of in his future life in Guatemala. They made him feel quite sad and jealous.
One day a man named Bill arrived with his wife, Maggie. As soon as Bill explained that he was from the same Rotary Club as Barbara and Madeleine, Ferdinand knew he could trust him. They were very kind as they explained to Ferdinand that no-one could drive him out of Canada because there was a scary new illness that was affecting lots of people. Because of this illness, called Covid-19, no-one would be able to drive him south into the United States – they would be stopped at the border and turned back. So instead of the exciting new journey that Ferdinand was dreaming of, Bill drove him just a few kilometres north of Calgary to a small town called Balzac where Bill had an RV dealership named Bucars. Bucars RV Centre would become Ferdinand’s new home until he could leave for Guatemala.
Ferdinand was sorry to say goodbye to the other fire trucks, but when Bill told him how happy he was to get a chance to drive Ferdinand, he felt proud of himself for being able to make Bill’s childhood dream of driving a fire truck come true.
The staff at Bill’s place think that having a fire truck on their lot is really special. There are some customers who used to be fire fighters and they go out to inspect Ferdinand and have quiet chats with him. Sometimes they even bring their families and take pictures with him. Last summer there was one special day when Rick, the Rotary club’s president, brought his young grandson Simon to visit Ferdinand so they could go for a short ride. Simon was thrilled to be able to blow the horn, turn on the flashing lights and even ran the siren so everyone could hear the noise!
Chapter 3: The Journey to Guatemala
As of March, 2025, all the puzzle pieces are finally in place for Ferdinand to start his journey to Guatemala. Ferdinand is getting his last checkup at Bucars to make sure he is ready for the journey. He is also getting some shiny new decals to honour the Rotary clubs involved.
Ferdinand was loaded onto a flatbed trailer to start the first leg of his journey. First, Ferdinand will go to Seattle, where he will be loaded onto a military cargo plane to fly to Guatemala. Here are some photos of the loading process at Bucars.
Everyone who has gotten to know Ferdinand will miss him in Calgary, but we are all happy he will be able to help the people of Guatemala and spend the rest of his life fighting fires with the Bomberos! Let’s all wish Ferdinand a safe journey!
