LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
More than 30 members of the Langley Fire Department, together with 192nd Fighter Wing Airmen, teamed up with the City of Hampton to collect funds for the
Muscular Dystrophy Association Aug. 21 through 24 at the Langley Commissary and Main Exchange.
Each year, thousands of firefighters around the nation support an effort to "Fill-the-Boot" for MDA.
This year, the fire department's goal is to raise $2,000, and the City of Hampton's goal is $30,000, said Staff Sgt. Luke Rogan, 1st Civil Engineer Squadron firefighter.
In 1953, the Fill-the-Boot campaign was created from the efforts of one man, Lt. George Graney of Fire Engine Company 1 in South Boston. Lieutenant Graney, along with 20 other firefighters, started a door-to-door canister drive, raising $5,000 for a father of two boys with muscular dystrophy, as stated
MDA Web site.
According to the
City of Hampton's Professional Fire and Rescue Web site, , the
International Association of Fire Fighters is the largest national sponsor of the MDA, and members have donated nearly $275 million to
MDA since 1954.
The MDA Web site states that with those donations,
MDA is able to send almost 5,000 youth with neuromuscular diseases to
MDA summer camps each year. MDA pays the $800 per camper costs, without having to burden the camper's family to provide the funds.
The local MDA operates a camp in Wakefield, Va., and has about 850 patients in the area, said Cecelia O'Conner, local MDA office's administrative assistant.
More than one million Americans are afflicted with neuromuscular diseases and about 250,000 have some form of muscular dystrophy, according to the MDA Web site. Included in the more than
40 neuromuscular diseases covered by MDA are nine forms of muscular dystrophy,
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease,
myasthenia gravis,
spinal muscular atrophy, and
Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.