Fill The Boot has its place as a worthy, noble effort

Published 4:19 pm Wednesday, October 7, 2015

These comments are personal, not representative of my public offices of mayor of Algona and member of the board of governors, Valley Regional Fire Authority.

In response to the letter of Jerry Galland, attacking the charitable work of the Valley Fire Fighters (Auburn Reporter, Oct 2):

First, he talks about IAFF 2024 and an opinion of a Federal Way employee regarding an Auburn law. The letter also carried very misleading statements regarding the behavior of the Fill the Boot campaign, which the IAFF 1352 conducts in Auburn.

I have been involved in the Fill the Boot campaign with IAFF 1352 for about eight years now and have never observed the aggressive behavior described in the letter. I have observed no “coercing into submission or obedience, making reasonable persons fearful or feel compelled to give.”

Instead, I have personally observed people going out of their way, stopping in the parking lot and bringing their donations to the fire fighters. I have observed the firefighters’ efforts to not obstruct traffic in this charitable event. The longest delay for traffic, I have observed, is a few seconds while someone hands a firefighter their donation.

The letter fails to mention that all the funds raised by the firefighters go to local families. The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is the largest national sponsor of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The MDA conducts worldwide research efforts to eradicate 40 neuromuscular diseases. The contributions of the firefighters also go toward MDA’s summer camps for children, professional and public health education, and other programs.

This is only one of the many charitable efforts of the firefighters. I can think of three right now, the MS Bike Ride starting and ending in Mount Vernon, where some firefighters ride 100 miles a day to raise money for MS research; the Tunnel to Towers run/walk in New York to raise money for victims’ families from 911 and now expanded to military personnel and families and the Toys campaign in December. I am sure there are many more.

I do not understand the motivation for attacking these exceptional men and women who stand ready to risk their lives to keep our lives and property safe. They could just go home at the end of their shifts, but they put in many more uncompensated hours helping make some families’ lives better.

I believe that Mr. Galland could find more outrageous issues to consume his time than attacking such a worthy cause. It is interesting that he is writing about Auburn, quotes Federal Way, and lists Seattle as his home on blogs.

– David E. Hill