Dan Fuller, Minot

On behalf of the members of Local 1157, I would like to thank the citizens of Minot for helping the Minot Firefighters Local 1157 with another successful year of the Fill the Boot campaign. You donated over $36,000 this year, which is an impressive amount by any standard. During this year’s event, we answered numerous alarms, from medical calls to a structure fire.

The partnership between the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the International Association of Firefighters began in 1954 with the pledge that the MDA would be the primary charity of the IAFF until all neuromuscular diseases were cured. It has become tradition for the Minot Fire Department, along with thousands of other fire departments across the United States and Canada, to participate in the Fill the Boot campaign.

Collectively, the IAFF raised over $25 million dollars in 2012, to fund MDA research, medical care programs, and summer camps for children affected by any of the 42 neuromuscular diseases recognized by the MDA. But if you ask the families affected by muscular dystrophy, the most important thing Fill the Boot does is give them hope. Hope that someday, a cure for these diseases will be found.

Again, we say THANKS to the residents and visitors of Minot for another successful year, and we are looking forward to the 2014 Fill the Boot!