Firefighters collect more than $5,400 for MDA
Paper: West Bloomfield Beacon
Date: August 6, 2008
WEST BLOOMFIELD - The weekend of July 25-26 might have been the only time that getting the boot was a good thing.On those two days, volunteers from the West Bloomfield Fire Department held a "fill the boot" drive at the intersection of Orchard Lake and Commerce roads. In all, 18 members of the department helped collect a total of $5,444.81 from passing motorists.
"Actually, we set the goal for the two days at $5,000, so it went really, really well. People were very generous," said Tracie Thompson-Dawe, a firefighter and paramedic who is the department's Muscular Dystrophy Association coordinator.
"They did phenomenally," said Sheree Askew, district director for MDA through its Farmington Hills office. She praised the department, and the long relationship between the International Association of Fire Fighters and the MDA, which dates to the 1950s.
"I couldn't speak any higher about our firefighters in Michigan - especially West Bloomfield," said Askew. "It just goes to show they are heroes."
The money donated can help people with muscular dystrophy in a number of ways.
"The wonderful thing about (MDA) is that the money goes right back in," said Askew. Money sends kids to camp, supports research and helps buy things such as wheelchairs.
Askew said the MDA mainly uses the money from firefighters in Michigan to send kids with muscular dystrophy to Camp Cavell in Lexington, Mich., for a week.
"They can do whatever they want," said Askew. "It's a week that the kids never forget."
She said she spoke to a 14-year-old at this year's camp who was so sad to leave when the camp concluded.
"'Here I can dance and do everything,'" Askew remembered the teen saying. "It just goes to show how important these events are."
Thompson-Dawe said that if motorists made any comments when they gave to MDA, they talked about it being for a good cause, and they said "great job."
"Hopefully, one day we won't have to do it anymore - they'll find a cure and things will be good," she said.
Askew said the firefighters' efforts on a July weekend show that the famous Jerry Lewis MDA Labor Day Telethon is the "tip of the iceberg" when it comes to what the Muscular Dystrophy Association does.
You can reach Staff Writer David Wallace at dwallace@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1053.