View of one side of the commemorative coin featuring the participating teams of the 2011 Banjo Bowl.

A challenge coin is known as a small coin or medallion, bearing an organization emblem and carried by the organization's members. They are given to prove membership when challenged and to enhance morale. They are also considered a collectors item.

The Manitoba Fire Service created a new challenge coin to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of September 11th and the 2011 Banjo Bowl which fell on the same day. Morden Fire Chief Andy Thiessen explains how this commemorative coin came to be.

 

View of opposite side of the coin featuring Ground Zero.

 

Thiessen says emergency personnel from several departments around Manitoba were seen at the Banjo Bowl selling the coins. 1500 hundred of the coins were produced and only a couple hundred are still available for purchase. He says the precedes from the sale of these coins will be going toward a memorial going up at the Legislative Building in Winnipeg. Thiessen explains the memorial will honour the fallen fighters and emergency personnel in Manitoba.

Thiessen says even though Ground Zero is quite a distance away from us as a province, the affects of what happened ten years ago are felt very strongly by emergency service personnel all over Manitoba and the world. He explains in the case of fire fighters, when something happens to a fellow fire fighter they can all feel that pain. He adds they know something like that could always happen to them.