Hustle for the Muscle - Fill the Boot running until 4 p.m. today downtown TD
Mid-Columbia Fire & Rescue Capt. Eric Blumenthal offers up a boot to a driver who loves peace on Third Street, The Dalles near Clock Tower Ales.
They are be collecting money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and other from drivers-by until 4 p.m. today, Friday, Sept. 2.
Hal Wood and Amanda Borror have been coordinating the event together for over six years.
Hal Woods, Engineer and Paramedic for Mid-Columbia Fire and Rescue has helped organize the event for the last six to seven years.
He said that the Fill the Boot event is something he looks forward to every year, and is happy to see return following the lifting of many covid restrictions.
“My favorite thing is just getting to be out here and see these guys work their butts to the bone to raise money for an outstanding organization. It’s a great feeling to be able to send kids that have muscular disease to camp and fund the research to help them get new medications. It’s just so heartwarming to be able to take a day off and come out to support the families that need it,” said Woods.
Woods said that everyone participates in the event from Fire Chiefs to probationary firefighters.
“Some are paid staff, some are here volunteering. A couple of us are off duty today, but we’re here,” said Woods.
Amanda Borror, Direcotnif Firefighter Partnerships, who manages firefighter partnerships for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in Colorado, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and Nevada said that the fundraiser has grown a lot since its inception.
“It started back in Boston,” said Borror, “There were a couple of families that had children with muscular dystrophy and they needed help with medical costs and they reached out to their local fire department for help. The local fire department started going from door to door with the boots asking local neighbors for money and it just grew into Fill the Boot.”
The Muscular Dystrophy Association later became the charity of choice for the International Association of Firefighters.
“We've had this partnership for sixty eight years and it's moved into all the streets now,” said Borror “It’s a great time for the firefighters, they get to go out on the streets, and be in front of the community without it being the worst day of the community's week. They get to show up when it’s not a tragedy.”
The fundraiser has raised somewhere between $6,000-$12,000 in past years although coordinators said they weren’t sure what to expect this year due to the pandemic and many other reasons.
However, generous people seemed to be filling the boot at a rate of $1,000 an hour when CCCNews spoke with officials earlier today.
“I’ve got this slated to raise around $5,000,” said Borror. “And this year we added a QR code so people can donate that way, because not many people carry cash anymore.”
All the money raised goes to help local families that have family members with neuromuscular diseases.
“We cover anything from muscular dystrophy to ALS to duchenne to SMA. And some money goes towards research, and some goes towards a summer camp for kids with muscular diseases. That's my favorite part of MDA: the summer camps, where all of the local kids get together. And they get to be with other kids that know what they’re going through and it’s all free of charge to the families,” said Borror.
Firefighter day is the kids favorite day of the camp.
“We just feel so lucky to have the firefighters by our side because they really make the change for us,” said Borror.
MDA’s Fill the boot fundraiser has also helped contribute to the discovery and FDA approval of seventeen new prescription drugs that help people with muscular disease since 2015.
“So there's been so many years where the firefighters have been filling the boot and really not much movement, it was just investing and investing and nothing happening.And then, bam 2015, happened and everything that we've been putting all this effort and money towards really started coming to fruition.”
“So, it's a really exciting time right now and it gives our families hope that there's gonna be a cure for their child someday,” said Borror.
CCCNews correspondent Cole Goodwin, shared with Borror that their brother had recently passed away at the age of twenty-eight as a result of Fredrich’s Ataxia, a disease that causes progressive nervous system damage and movement impairments.
Borror offered her condolences and shared that Fredrich’s Ataxia is one of the many diseases MDA is working to find a cure for.
Since 1954, firefighters across the country have collected critical funds in the community – one dollar at a time – as part of the Fill the Boot program to raise money for MDA. Muscular dystrophy is a disease that includes more than 40 neuromuscular disorders. The disease is estimated to affect 250,000 people in the US alone.
