Members of the Corpus Christi Professional Firefighters Association present a giant check for $105,000 to the Muscular Dystrophy Association after the 2018 Fill the Boot fundraising efforts. Courtesy photo
Keep your loose change and bills at hand as you drive around Corpus Christi on Friday, March 8, the first of three planned Fill the Boot fundraising campaigns for children with muscular dystrophy. Members of the Corpus Christi Professional Firefighters Association will be holding out their boots for drivers to fill with donations on three consecutive Fridays: March 8, 15, and 22. In 2018, the firefighters raised $105,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
The money helps send Corpus Christi area children with muscular dystrophy to a week-long camp in Rockport during the summer where they fish, play sports, and learn life skills. Some of the money goes into the larger organization for research as well.
“My brothers and sisters, the firefighters of Corpus Christi, do an awesome job filling the boot,” said Johnny Stobbs, president of the firefighters association at a recent Corpus Christi City Council meeting. “But one thing that gets passed over a lot is that it’s not possible without you, the citizens of Corpus Christi, who open their hearts and fill these boots.”
Corpus Christi consistently ranks in the top 5-10 percent in the nation for Fill the Boot fundraising. Nationwide, about 1,900 Fill the Boot campaigns raise around $20 million each year to fight muscular dystrophy, a group of diseases that weaken and destroy muscle mass.
The three-day effort kicked off in February at a City Council meeting when Mayor Joe McComb stuck the first donation — a twenty-dollar bill — into a firefighter’s boot.
