Go grocery shopping at the Inglewood Safeway this weekend and you will first be offered the chance to show your heart by metaphorically introducing it into the footwear of an emergency first responder.
“We ask people to fill our boots,” clarified St. Albert firefighter Jay Howells, who is also acting as the spokesperson for the hardy crew’s annual Muscular Dystrophy Rooftop Campout.
This weekend marks the start of the campaign. While the group of fearless campers won’t actually take on their three-day outdoor adventure of living on the roof of Fire Hall #2 for another two weeks, they are getting the ball rolling early with the boot drive.
Their goal is to raise $25,000 to help improve the quality of life for people with neuromuscular disorders. Donations will go towards the funding of mobility equipment, support services and critical research.
Starting at 10 a.m. today and tomorrow, shoppers at the Safeway, located at 395 St. Albert Trail, will be greeted by the firefighters and their boots. They will continue on until at least 3 p.m. each day, but Howells suggested that if the getting is good then they’ll likely stay longer.
“If we’re raking it in, we don’t leave,” he exclaimed, noting that those boots get filled just as easily as they do when passed around during the campout. “It’s actually contributed a lot to the total amount that we raise each year. We’re able to pull in a good chunk of change over those two days. People are pretty darned generous, to be honest with you.
The firefighters will also be selling tickets for the Valentine’s raffle to help further their fundraising.
After the weekend, their fun fundraising efforts kick it up a notch or two. An online auction (at www.stalbertfirefighters.com) runs from Feb. 13 until March 10. On Thursday, Feb. 16, they will take over East Side Mario’s from 5 to 9:30 p.m., offering their services as servers, greeters, and other staff members. All tips that they collect during the evening will go into the boot.
“We have a good time. It’s a really good time to be waiters. I don’t think any of us are any good at it at all. Or bartenders. Or bus boys. We do it all there. We probably get more in their way than anything but they’re good sports about it. The regular waiters and waitresses tag along behind us to make sure we don’t screw up too badly. They bear with us. That’s good of them.”
The restaurant is located at 615 St. Albert Trail.
But the real show starts on Feb. 26. That’s when a group of the firefighters will camp out no matter the weather. As commuters drive past Fire Station #2 at 100 Boudreau Rd., they can pull in and offer their cash donations.
The St. Albert team relies heavily on the generosity of these drivers as they participate in this massive effort that sees fire departments across the country helping out with the cause.
“We’re a small department but out of the departments similar in size – Strathcona County, Spruce Grove, Leduc, places like that – we pride ourselves on being able to raise the most amount of money out of any department in the area other than Edmonton. A big part of their fundraising comes from corporate donors. The vast majority of ours comes from private citizens.”
He noted that the Edmonton team regularly brings in approximately $100,000 while St. Albert collects more than $40,000.
“You can see the discrepancy in the size of the communities and we still do very, very well. That’s something that we’re proud of. There’s very generous people out here in St. Albert.”
