Liam Herman was up at 2 a.m. Sunday. By 3, the 14-year-old was out on Edmonton’s dark, frozen streets, starting a 200-kilometre walk he’d planned himself.
He has until Wednesday to finish. The walk is raising money for the families of soldiers killed and injured in the Oct. 17 fire at CFB Wainwright, and his goal is $7,000 for Support Our Troops, the official charity of the Canadian Armed Forces.
Our thoughts remain with the families of Sgt. Morgan Wong, Pte. Shaun Farrell, Pte. Aidan Goulding and Pte. Hayden Lykkemark, and with the soldiers still recovering.
Liam planned the whole fundraiser in a week
His parents say the walk was entirely his idea. Last week, they wrote on Facebook, he came to them and said he’d created a walk to help the families affected by what happened at Wainwright. Then he did the legwork himself. He reached out to news stations and designed his own poster, complete with a yellow ribbon and a QR code for donations.
“He is the most caring 14 year old with the biggest heart,” his parents wrote. “We as parents couldn’t be more proud!”
Liam told CTV News Edmonton that the news of the fire hit him hard and that he felt for the families caught up in it.
He’s walking Edmonton with no route, just a distance to hit
Liam has no set destination. He’s walking the city’s streets until the kilometres add up, with his family driving alongside to keep him supplied with food and water, CTV reported.
His plan was to put most of the distance in early: 80 to 100 km on Sunday alone, then about 32.5 km a day through Wednesday. A marathon is 42.2 km, so Sunday’s target was close to two marathons back to back.
The cold has made it harder. Liam told CTV he was “freezing my toes off” on day one, and CityNews Edmonton showed him pushing through ice on the sidewalks.
The 200 km is also roughly the drive from Edmonton to the base.
Two Saskatoon reservists show how hard 200 km is
Liam isn’t the first to pick that number. Last week, army reservists Ethan Spiess and Owen Schultz set out to walk 200 km around Saskatoon for a member of their unit still in critical condition after the fire, 650 CKOM reported.
Schultz finished in about 48 hours with blisters the size of toonies. Spiess had to stop around 75 km when his legs seized. Together they raised more than $5,600 for the Canadian Red Cross, over six times their original goal.
Liam is attempting the same distance at 14, over four days in an Edmonton November.
Liam’s QR code goes to the official Support Our Troops fund
The QR code on his poster links to his own fundraising page on supportourtroops.ca. After the fire, Support Our Troops set up a CFB Wainwright Support Fund, run by Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services. According to the Calgary Flames Foundation, the fund helps military families with urgent needs and unexpected costs after an injury or a death, on top of the benefits the military already provides. The Flames Foundation and BMO have each given $100,000 to it.
CTV News has reported that fake fundraisers have targeted people trying to help Wainwright families, so it’s worth checking where any donation actually goes. Liam’s goes to the official Support Our Troops site.
Two weeks later, families are still at hospital bedsides
The fire broke out during live-fire training involving soldiers from the Edmonton-based 3rd Battalion, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, and reservists from across the country. Four soldiers died and 39 were injured, 19 of them critically. A military official later said an exercise using live grenades sparked it, and the investigation is ongoing.
As of Oct. 21, Premier Danielle Smith said 27 soldiers were still in hospital and 13 were in critical condition. Many are being treated in Edmonton, and their families have come to the city to be near them. One of them is Pte. Trevor Flegel, 26, of Kitimat, B.C., who remains in the ICU with burns to about half his body.
Remembrance Day will carry extra weight this year. Edmonton’s annual Lest We Forget concerts will open with a moment of silence for the soldiers killed and injured at Wainwright, CTV reported.
For the full account of Oct. 17, read our report on the CFB Wainwright fire and the winds that spread it.
How to support Liam’s walk
Scan the QR code on his poster or donate through Liam’s Support Our Troops page. He’s set to finish Wednesday, Nov. 4. We’ll update this story with his final distance and total.
Sources
Support Our Troops: Liam Herman’s 200 km walk fundraising page
Calgary Flames Foundation: $100,000 donation to the CFB Wainwright Support Fund
Herman family statement on Facebook, Nov. 1, 2026
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