St. Albert firefighters are hoping residents will help fill their boots for muscular dystrophy this month as their 15th annual rooftop campaign gets underway.
Members of the St. Albert Firefighters Local 2130 will be camped out on the roof of Fire Station No. 2 this March 4-7 to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy Canada. The rooftop campaign is now in its 15th year.
The union was the top fundraiser in Canada for the 2024 Fill the Boot campaign (which raises money for muscular dystrophy research, treatment, and supports), and hopes to nab the top spot again this year, said Cody Enderlin, co-chair of the St. Albert campaign. That means mustering some $50,000 without the help of last month’s Fire and Ice Family Day Festival, which was cancelled because of extreme cold.
Enderlin said firefighters started this year’s efforts on Feb. 26 at East Side Mario’s, where they served as waiters for the evening to collect tips for Muscular Dystrophy Canada. Firefighters will have their boots out to collect donations at the southern Save-On-Foods on March 1-2 and the northern one on March 15-16. They will also host a wrap-up party March 22 at the southern Canadian Brewhouse.
This year’s rooftop camp-out will feature a DJ to keep guests and campers entertained, Enderlin said. It might also have some balmy 1 C conditions if the long-range weather forecast proves accurate.
“As of right now, it looks like it’s not going to be too bad, but there have been years when it’s been -20, -30 up in the tent,” Enderlin said.
New to this year’s fundraiser was pickleball tournament organized by the union’s social club and the St. Albert Pickleball Club (SAPC).
St. Albert firefighter Kyle Nobles said the tournament was originally going to be just a fun challenge between club members and the city’s firefighters, but the firefighters decided to roll it into the muscular dystrophy campaign.
This March 29, about a dozen teams of firefighters and City of St. Albert administrators will compete in a mock tournament against the SAPC’s U18 players at Raise Athletics for bragging rights. Guests will get to enter prize draws and pay to play against the firefighters on the “challenge court,” with all proceeds going toward the campaign.
While the firefighters have a few pickleballers among their number, Nobles said the SAPC players have the edge in experience.
“I think we’ll end up getting smoked,” he joked.
A cold start
Firefighters have been collecting donations in their boots for Muscular Dystrophy Canada since 1954. The Gazette’s archives suggest St. Albert firefighters have been doing so since at least 1995.
Edmonton’s fire department started raising money for muscular dystrophy in around 2010 by having firefighters camp out atop one of their fire halls, said Greg Harvey, president of St. Albert Firefighters Local 2130. (The cold conditions are meant to simulate the muscle stiffness associated with muscular dystrophy.) Inspired by Edmonton’s success and by a meeting with Nick and Benson Gatt (two brothers from Cardiff with muscular dystrophy), Harvey, Adam Colameco, and Kathi Sheedy rallied St. Albert firefighters to hold their first rooftop campaign in February 2011.
“The first year on the roof was terrible,” Harvey recalled — freezing winds whipped through the ragged Alberta Forestry tent they had scrounged up for shelter, and no one seemed to be stopping by to donate.
“We were panicking a little bit.”
Eventually, one of the firefighters got the idea to stand in front of the fire hall with a boot outstretched, Harvey said. Soon, there was a flood of cars. Union members have hung out on the ground and on the roof during the campaign ever since.
The first rooftop campaign raised some $35,000, the Gazette archives show, more than twice the union’s goal of $15,000. At one point, a school bus pulled up to the fire hall full of students eager to donate.
“As I walked down the aisle, each kid put money into the boot,” then-union president Scott Wilde wrote in a letter to the Gazette.
“If this is any indication of what our next generation is going to be like, this city will continue to be Alberta’s finest city.”
Harvey said it is always great to see the community rally to support this campaign.
“Here we are 15 years later, and over half a million dollars raised.”
Donations can be dropped off at Fire Hall No. 2 throughout the campaign. Visit loom.ly/gAwHtNo for details.
