The Grantsville Volunteer Fire Department has raised $5,100 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, presenting the check to the MDA on Wednesday night. 

In 1995, the Grantsville Fire Department joined up with the “Fill the Boot” organization, a fund-raiser where firefighters all over Utah literally go out into the streets with a firefighter’s boot and collect donations for MDA. The first year, $254 was raised. Now, 13 years later, that annual amount has increased to $5,100.

“One hundred percent of the money goes to MDA,” said Mikki McKenzie, chairperson of this year’s fund-raiser for the Grantsville fire department. The money donated by the fire department will sponsor five to seven children with MDA to attend an MDA camp in Florida.

Besides the “Fill the Boot” campaign, money was also donated and raffle tickets were sold to members of the community. There was also a generous anonymous donor who added to mix, according to McKenzie.

The Grantsville Fire Department spent the entire month of August raising the money.

One of the highlights of the fund-raiser was a raffle with Dakota Madill, a 10-year old boy diagnosed with MDA, drawing the winners. Winners included local residents Steve Sumpsion, Eric Patton, Evan Zenger, and Payton Hammond. Prizes were donated by various businesses.

“It has been a lot of fun,” McKenzie said. “The whole department helped. I can’t thank one person specifically, I have such a wonderful crew. The volunteer firefighters are the ones who made this such a success.”   

McKenzie said it will be hard to improve the amount in the years to come, but she is already thinking of new ideas to help raise more money for MDA. Some of these include bike rides, golf tournaments, a waterslide event, and dinners.

When asked about why the fire department spends so much time and effort to do this fundraiser, McKenzie simply said, “We do it to help the kids.”