Gilroy
– On Saturday, Gilroy firefighters will ask shoppers outside Nob
Hill Foods to fill their boots with money for the Muscular
Dystrophy Association.
Gilroy – On Saturday, Gilroy firefighters will ask shoppers outside Nob Hill Foods to fill their boots with money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Meanwhile, firefighters across the country will be doing similar “Fill the Boot” fund drives in anticipation of the MDA’s annual Labor Day telethon, perennially hosted by actor and comedian Jerry Lewis.
The Gilroy Fire Fighters Local 2805 will be hard to miss from 9 to 4 Saturday at the 777 First St. supermarket. They will be out with their families, posters, a fire truck and a whole bunch of fire boots.
“Hopefully, with people’s generosity, we can raise about $10,000 for charity; that’s our goal,” said Mark Ordaz, vice president of the local union and a captain with the Gilroy Fire Department.
The money will benefit local people with muscular dystrophy who visit Stanford Hospital for treatment, according to Randy Breen, who directs the MDA’s South Bay district. One beneficiary is Camp Harmon, a summer camp in the Santa Cruz Mountains for children with the disease. Local donations will also go toward a $300,000, three-year study of the disease under way at Stanford, Breen said.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 Bay Area people suffer from muscular dystrophy, according to Breen. More than a million Americans have the disease, which has 43 varieties.
Since 1953, the MDA fund-raiser has been an annual event for the Gilroy Fire Fighters’ umbrella union, the International Association of Fire Fighters. The IAFF is the MDA’s single largest sponsor, according to Breen. In 2003, he said, North American firefighters raised $18 million for the MDA.
The Gilroy chapter has gotten more committed to the fund drive in recent years, Ordaz said.
“We’ve always done it hit-or-miss, but within the last five years we’ve really taken it upon ourselves to do it every year.”
To further help the cause, Gilroy firefighters recently participated in – and won – a charity softball tournament in Seaside against 10 other Central Coast firefighting unions, according to Ordaz. Admission fees, donations and each team’s $200 entrance fee went to the MDA.
The Gilroy union is now looking into hosting a similar tournament in the future, Ordaz said.
