Fresno firefighters to collect donations for MDA Fill the Boot drive
Fresno firefighters worked Blackstone and Nees to raise money for MDA, backing a campaign that has generated more than $750 million since 1954.
Fresno City firefighters spent the morning and early afternoon at Blackstone and Nees avenues, collecting donations for the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Fill the Boot campaign from 6 a.m. to 1 p.m. The drive put Fresno City Firefighters Association Local 202 in one of the city’s most visible traffic corridors, asking drivers to support people living with muscular dystrophy, ALS and related neuromuscular diseases.
The effort is part of a partnership that began in 1954, when families affected by muscular dystrophy approached Boston Firefighters Local 718. The International Association of Fire Fighters then formally adopted MDA as its national charity on Aug. 19, 1954. Since then, the Fill the Boot campaign has raised more than $750 million for research, care and support programs, and the IAFF marked the partnership’s 70th anniversary in 2024.
MDA says the fundraising has helped support major medical progress, including 30 FDA-approved treatments since 2015. For Fresno and Central Valley families dealing with muscular dystrophy and other neuromuscular diseases, that money reaches beyond a curbside donation drive. It helps sustain research, care services and programs aimed at making daily life more manageable for patients and their families.
One of those programs is MDA Summer Camp, a weeklong experience for children and young adults ages 8 to 17. The camp is designed to give participants a barrier-free place to build independence, self-advocacy and self-confidence while taking part in outdoor adventure and other accessible recreation. The fundraising at Blackstone and Nees helps support those kinds of experiences, along with the care network families rely on when a diagnosis changes everything.
The campaign also has grown into an awareness effort for firefighters themselves. MDA and the IAFF work together on an educational initiative for firefighters and their families affected by ALS, and research cited by the groups says firefighters may face about twice the risk of ALS compared with the general population. That makes the public-facing donation drive more than a traditional charity ask: it is part of a longer relationship between firefighters, patients and families coping with a serious disease.
George Arthur of Fresno City Firefighters Association Local 202 said the department is proud to continue the partnership and that money raised locally helps fund research and care that can make a real difference for families nationwide. The same Blackstone and Nees location has also been used for prior Fresno Fill the Boot efforts, including a 2025 drive at the same hours.
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