Image credit: Lindsay Kellosalmi/Contributed

By Aaron Schulze

Tour Paramedic Ride

Paramedics cycling to raise funds for national monument in Ottawa, wrapping up four-day tour in Kamloops

Jun 12, 2025 | 10:40 AM

KAMLOOPS — A group of paramedics cycling through the Southern Interior heat will wrap up their four-day tour in Kamloops.

For more than a decade, the Tour Paramedic Ride has held cycling rides across Canada in efforts to raise money to erect a national monument in Ottawa for paramedics who have died in the line of duty. The first ride in B.C. took place in 2018.

The 2025 Tour Paramedic Ride B.C. started Monday (June 9) in Osoyoos. After one final overnight rest stop in Salmon Arm, paramedics from across the province and the country will stroll into Riverside Park in Kamloops at around 4:00 p.m. Thursday (June 12) for closing ceremonies.

Lindsay Kellosalmi, event director for Tour Paramedic Ride B.C., said the journey so far has been wonderful, albeit a bit too warm amidst an early season heat event.

“Especially for those riders from out of province, they’ve just been taking in the spectacular views and the really warm week we’ve had,” Kellosalmi told CFJC Today. “The name of the game the last three days has really been hydration. We were about an hour delayed upon our arrival of our finish on day one because we had to take extra stops to keep filling those water bottles and keeping people up to date with electrolytes. The heat makes the journey feel twice as hard.”

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When drawing out the map for the Tour Paramedic Ride, Kellosalmi said organizers think of where it is going to be safe for their riders and volunteer team, and if there is going to be ample accommodations. She said they have wrapped up previous tours in Kamloops, and the sights of Riverside Park and support from the community were extra incentives on why they wanted to return.

Funds raised from the Tour Paramedic Ride B.C. will go to the Canadian Paramedic Memorial Foundation. At a national level, Kellosalmi said the tour has raised more than $500,000 for the Canadian Paramedic Memorial Foundation (CPMF), which is spearheading the efforts to erect a national monument in Ottawa.

“It’s important to our paramedics’ family, the community and the loved ones of those paramedics who have died in the line of duty to erect a national monument as a place that we can all come together and celebrate their achievements, but also the sacrifice,” Kellosalmi said. “We can gather there together, whether it’s somebody who lost a loved one in the line of duty who worked as a paramedic… or perhaps even to have a ceremony during Paramedic Services Week that happens every spring to come together and have a place where we can honour our fallen.”

Kellosalmi said the CPMF, in partnership with the federal government and Heritage Canada, has selected, confirmed and secured a site in Ottawa for the national monument. To her knowledge, it will be outdoors and have a unique design that reflects paramedicine.

Residents can donate to the cause here.