Firefighter teams from across the region will haul hose, kick sleds, and drag rescue dummies across the Mandeville Lakefront on October 3, all in the name of raising money for a nonprofit that serves child abuse victims across two parishes. Registration is now open for the third annual Heroes at the Harbor firefighter competition, which runs from 10 am to 2 pm near Lakeshore Drive and Jackson Street. Every dollar raised this year will go to the Children's Advocacy Center - Hope House, the Covington-based organization that provides free forensic interviews and counseling to child abuse victims in St. Tammany and Washington Parishes.
The competition is hosted by St. Tammany Parish Fire District # 4 on Facebook, operationally known as Mandeville Fire/EMS, which has served the Mandeville area since 1958. Teams pay a $50 registration fee, due the day of the event, and every registered competitor receives a commemorative Heroes at the Harbor T-shirt. First- and second-place teams will take home prizes, and competitors will get full details on rules, schedule, and logistics ahead of the event once they sign up.
The seven-part obstacle course tests skills firefighters use on the job: force entry, advancing hose, extinguishing a fire, dragging hose, search, a kicked sled, and rescue. It's a public-facing test of exactly the kind of physical and tactical work Mandeville Fire/EMS crews put to use on real calls, including a technical rescue operation just days ago, on August 21, when the department's specialized rescue team extracted a trapped worker from a solid waste trailer, as Hoodline reported in a rescue that freed a trapped worker.
A Family Festival Alongside the Competition
Heroes at the Harbor is open to the public, and spectators won't pay a cent to watch. Alongside the main competition, organizers are running a free Kids Zone with a children's firefighter challenge course, touch-a-truck activities, inflatables, and live entertainment, according to St. Tammany Parish Fire District # 4's Facebook page. Anyone with questions about the competition can reach Mike Zulli at 504-256-2343 or by email at [email protected].
The event has quietly become a Northshore tradition since it launched, rotating its charitable beneficiary each year. It benefited the Safe Harbor Domestic Violence Program in 2024 and the Youth Service Bureau in 2025, per the fire district's Facebook page, before shifting its full 2026 proceeds to Hope House. Mandeville Fire/EMS co-hosts the event in partnership with Susan Brady, director of Heroes at Home, who also organizes the city's annual Memorial Day lakefront family reunion, according to reporting from the Times-Picayune. Public waterfront events on Lakeshore Drive, including Heroes at the Harbor and the Northshore Half Marathon, require formal permit approval from the Mandeville City Council, per Mandeville Daily.
Why Hope House Needs the Support
The timing lines up with a major milestone for the nonprofit set to receive this year's proceeds. On August 20, Hope House opened Brooke's Place, an $800,000, 2,200-square-foot expansion of its Covington campus built to handle more simultaneous forensic interviews and therapy sessions, according to Biz New Orleans. The organization served 643 children and conducted 3,060 free counseling sessions for abuse victims and their non-offending caregivers across St. Tammany and Washington Parishes in 2025, the outlet reports. Because those services are provided at no cost to families, Hope House depends on outside fundraising, like Heroes at the Harbor, to keep running.
Hope House also coordinates a 12-agency Multidisciplinary Team in St. Tammany Parish, working directly with the Mandeville Police Department, the St. Tammany Sheriff's Office, and the 22nd Judicial District Attorney's Office, according to information from the Children's Advocacy Center - Hope House. That structure is meant to streamline criminal investigations while minimizing trauma for child victims. The St. Tammany Chamber of Commerce notes that Hope House is the sole agency providing forensic interviews for child abuse allegations across the two parishes, and cites organizational statistics indicating roughly one in ten children will suffer sexual abuse before turning 18 — a figure underscoring why the nonprofit's caseload keeps growing alongside the community's need to fund it.
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