Member News
Fill The Boot Starts This Week! We Need Your Help!
Retirees and current members - we need your help to make this year's Fill the Boot Campaign our most successful ever!
Marin's 2017 Fill the Boot campaign is dedicated to Mike Ortelle (Southern Marin Fire) who passed away earlier this year after battling ALS, one of the neuromuscular diseases that the MDA is helping to find a cure. The 2017 Fill the Boot campaign kicks off on April 14 - which would have been Brother Mike's 57th birthday. If we all pitch in this year, we can reach a goal of $57,000 - breaking our record and paying tribute to our brother.
WHO CAN VOLUNTEER TO HELP:
Anyone can help with the event! Family, friends, etc., take pictures, count money, hold signage & cheer us on, logistics! In order to physically go into the street and collect money and be covered by MDA's insurance policy you must be a current or retired Firefighter, Academy Cadet/Trainee, EMT or Medic working for Fire Department, reserves, seasonal Firefighters. Or in Marin County's situation seasonals who were employed and will be rehired this upcoming season can act as volunteers for the agency and also be covered.
WHAT TO WEAR/ BRING DAY OF FOR VOLUNTEERS:
Recommended to wear turnout pants (easiest to bring your spares) and for comfort wear shorts underneath plus tennis shoes instead of turnout boots! Prepare to the projected forecast, bring wet weather gear as well as sunglasses & sunscreen! Coffee and pastries will be provided as well as water and lunch! A union or department t-shirt should be worn, everyone will get a 2017 Fill the Boot t-shirt! Finally for safety if you have an assigned traffic vest at work please bring it, MDA will also have a cache of vests!
FILL THE BOOT DATES & LOCATIONS:
FRIDAY APRIL 14TH 8AM-1PM
- SAN RAFAEL-Grand Ave. at 2nd & 3rd Street!
THURSDAY APRIL 20TH 8AM-1PM
- SAN ANSELMO-Sir Francis Drake Blvd. at the Hub!
SATURDAY APRIL 22ND 9AM-2PM
- NOVATO-Rowland Blvd & Vintage Way!
SUNDAY APRIL 23RD 9AM-2PM
- TIBURON-Tiburon Blvd at Main Street!
- SAUSALITO-Bridgeway at Princess Street!
WHY FILL THE BOOT? INFORMATION/ FACTS/ STATISTICS & MORE:
- 1775 is consistently in the top 10 in the state for dollars raised, 10th last year with $37,045! We have topped $50,000 in the past, had we raised $47,243 last year we would have been 6th in the state! The average is $100 per hour per member filling the boot!
- IAFF/ MDA Partnership 62 years strong! $608 million raised! 130 Care Centers! Funds almost 4,000 kids a year to go to summer camp! $27 million a year in research!
- Directly related to the money we raise and what MDA does with that money kids are living longer, graduating high school, going to college and starting families!
- This year a second Summer Camp is being added to meet the need! Approximately $2,000 per kid to go to camp, often described as the best week of the year by many of the kids!
- 3 drugs for treatment have been approved in the last 6 months! One of those is Spinraza to treat SMA (Spinal Muscular Atrophy) WATCH VIDEO!
ASHLEY'S STORY:
Local 1775 first met Ashley in 2013 at the yearly MDA Boot Camp Workshop. Ashley was a 17 year old girl living with Friedreich's Ataxia. Ashley participated in the MDA Summer Camp because it gave her the opportunity to do all the activities everybody else her age does - not just sitting around and watching.
Ashley is truly her hero because no matter how hard things are because of her disease, she stays strong and positive. She doesn't focus on what she can't do, but continues to enjoy the things that she can. She is very independent and is not about to let this disease get the best of her!
Ashley and her mom have attended the workshop for many years and speak to the groups of Firefighters from across Northern California & Nevada. She was initially given to age 16 to live, then updated to around 18-20. Ashley is now 21, enrolled in college, and showing signs off improvement due to a new drug trial! But we have another reason for sharing her story. A normal visit to the yearly MDA workshop usually ends with the family retiring to their room so the parents can care for their child and that child can get much needed rest, often times the kids can't make it the whole day and have to head back to their room to take a break and rest. This happened to Ashley this year but she reappeared with her mom later that evening for the dinner/ social gathering. Ashley, now a 21 year old adult and able to go out, ended her evening on the dance floor in her wheelchair surrounded by about 30 firefighters helping her dance, something that would not have been possible without our members Filling the Boot!
ONLINE DONATION LINK/ FACEBOOK/ SOCIAL MEDIA:
We have already raised $500 online! The link is active on our 1775 home page & Facebook page, share it as you see fit. You can also sign-up as an individual fundraiser or create a fundraising team under the main donation page if you like, all donations total in to the 1775 main total. Who's your department webmaster or social media guru? Have them promote it and/or come out the day of to take pictures and document & share the event!
FACEBOOK EVENT INVITE: https://www.facebook.com/
DONATION LINK: http://filltheboot.donordrive.
Thank You!
Engineer Rutkowski
L1775 Fill the Boot Coordinator
Sta. 15 C-Shift
Cell: 707-483-7322