At Your Service: Muscular Dystrophy boot only heel-deep

If the imagery works, then picture the fundraising goal of St. Albert Firefighters' Local 2130 as a big boot with the $10,000 mark right at the top of the collar. Now think about how that virtual boot is only filled up to somewhere around the big toe.

That's tough for the local crew to reconcile, COVID-19 notwithstanding, especially since they usually crown each year's campaign with four or five boots' full. Coming home without achieving success is not what firefighters are trained to do and that's been hard, explained team captain Jay Howells.

"It's probably one of the toughest things I've had to watch," he started, confirming the current tally of donations at $1,785 as of Tuesday morning.

"This is my seventh year doing it and of course we've always raised around $45 to $50,000 ... per capita, it’s the highest anywhere in Canada. Of course, we do that in a unique fashion: we don't have the corporate sponsorships. We don't have that, so we get out on those pads and we stay out there from morning till night. We do the East Side Mario’s night, we do Save On Foods over a weekend. It all comes together to raise a hell of a lot of money. Without being able to do that, we've been hamstrung so significantly. We've done what we could."

The team even had a plan to march a marathon in full uniform throughout the city with boots on the end of two-metre sticks just to make sure that people could donate at a safe physical distance. A surge in the COVID-19 variants pre-empted that.

Howells completely understands that this last year has been extraordinarily tough on many people and in many different ways, including economically. Local 2130 is trying to do the best it can to support Muscular Dystrophy Canada so that it can help people with neuromuscular disorders.

Anyone can donate to the virtual Fill the Boot online at muscle.akaraisin.com/ui/virtualfilltheboot/t/StAlbert. While the deadline for this year's campaign is Wednesday, March 31, MD Canada takes donations all year round. Howells' plan is to come back bigger and better than ever before in 2022 after the pandemic storm has passed.

Over the decade that St. Albert's firefighters have supported the cause, they have raised more than $460,000 for muscular dystrophy research, treatments, and supports for those afflicted.

SAIF car rally is ON

St. Albert Stop Abuse in Families is revving its engines early to get a good head start on driving up participants for its inaugural Car Rally coming up in June.

"We typically don't do a spring fundraiser. Usually, what happens is the community does fundraisers for us. Unfortunately, all of those things have sort of dropped by the wayside," offered Areni Kelleppan, executive director at SAIF.

"We thought, we'll do something that will get the families out that is a family friendly event, and is COVID appropriate."

Mark your calendars now for the event scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June 5. Only 100 teams are allowed, with registration at $50 per team, motorcycles included. Participants will roam the city searching for items at local businesses and landmarks to win fantastic prizes.

"Basically, it's a family scavenger hunt all around St. Albert but in your car."

All funds raised will go to support SAIF's important and high-in-demand programs. Kelleppan said that her team has been making do with supports from the federal and the provincial governments. SAIF is now adding capacity and has recently hired two counselors to support its current clientele and the volume of incoming requests.

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