BGFD raises over $20,000 for Muscular Dystrophy Association

The boot has been filled and the dollars counted.

In a check presentation this morning, the Bowling Green Fire Department revealed $20,466.08 were raised during this year’s Fill the Boot fundraiser benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

“We’ve been partnering with the fire departments for a long time,” Kelly Markert, the Development Coordinator for MDA says. “They’re a great partnership with us and been filling the boot for over 60 years. We’ve been working with the Bowling Green for over 10 years, so they’ve raised a significant amount of funds for us and we’re just super grateful for this partnership.”

Labor Day weekend, firefighters braved the heat to stand storefront at Walmart and ask for your donations.

Firefighter William Moore explains, “the biggest thing for us is to raise awareness. With there being 43 different diseases that MDA covers, there can be people all over the state and all over the city of Bowling Green that know and love someone that may be affected by muscular dystrophy.”

For one man whose wife, daughter, and son are battling the disease, those days they spend each year taking up donations means more than words can express.

“The amount of effort it takes—having a wheelchair in our life has changed a lot,” Kevin Ansted says, “getting a house with hardwood floors, getting a handicap accessible bathroom, things of that sort. It is a lot of extra work and I don’t expect people to understand because if they did then they’d be wearing in my shoes.”

The funds raised go directly to finding treatments and cures for muscular dystrophy, ALS and related diseases that limit strength and mobility.

Instead of fighting fires, these firefighters are fighting for a cure.

“Just to get out and raise money to go towards research and summer camp,” Moore says, “it’s really important for us to just bring that knowledge to the forefront and raise some money as well.”

Moore says this is the second highest dollar amount they’ve ever raised.

Last year, the BGFD brought in over $24,000.

If you would like to find out more about MDA or donate, you can visit this website.