Cities pull back on firefighter fundraising, citing safety concerns

At least seven U.S. cities and counties have stopped firefighters from collecting charitable donations at busy intersections citing safety concerns.

For nearly 61 years, career and volunteer firefighters around the country have participated in “Fill-the-Boot” roadside charity campaigns, often around the Labor Day and Memorial Day weekends. They raise money, while on duty and in their firefighting gear, by asking passing motorists and pedestrians to contribute to various charities. More than 100,000 firefighters raise about $25 million a year for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, for example.

“There are no greater heroes than these firefighters,” says MDA spokeswoman Roxan Olivas.

But traffic and safety concerns, including the death of a firefighter in Michigan, have spurred cities to re-evaluate or halt such fundraising methods.

• In March a South Carolina firefighter was hit while collecting money for the Carolina’s Children Charity.
• In August, citing concerns about firefighter safety, the city of Marshfield, Wis. rejected their fire department’s permit request to fundraise on the streets.
• Charleston, S.C. began enforcing a ban on passing items to and from motor vehicles in late September. The city’s new ordinance is supposed to “promote the health, safety and welfare of the citizens” by protecting the “free and safe flow of motor vehicle traffic.”
• Oklahoma City and other municipalities are in the process of deciding whether to ban firefighters’ roadside donation drives.

Hit with tragedy

Tragedy struck in early September when a driver allegedly intentionally hit and killed Michigan firefighter Dennis Rodeman, 35, during his “Fill-the-Boot” shift. The driver, 22-year-old Grant Taylor, who was later found to have mental health issues, told police he was frustrated with the traffic associated with the fundraising campaign. He has since been charged with murder.

“That was just an incident that none of us could have predicted,” Olivas said. “It certainly wasn’t an accident and that was what was so hard about it.”

More than $100K collected for firefighter killed in hit and run

A USA TODAY review of federal fatality records indicates Rodeman’s case may be the only instance in which a firefighter has died during a fire department sponsored roadside fundraiser in the past five years.

But firefighter’s stories of close calls and accidents speak to the risks of stepping into traffic.

In March, a Ladson, S.C. firefighter collecting money for the Carolina’s Children Charity was hit and sent to the hospital with head injuries. In 2012, Haughton, La., firefighter Sean Stewart was seriously injured while collecting for the Muscular Dystrophy Association when a driver hit him in the back.

“We’ve had some minor stuff,” said Roger Lopez, coordinator of the International Association of Fire Fighters National MDA drive. Lopez has been a full-time firefighter in San Antonio, Texas for 20 years.

Occasionally a rear view mirror will clip a firefighter as they are getting out the way, Lopez said. “But out of the thousands of the Fill the Boot drives it is very minimal.”

These accidents are often underrepresented in the National Fire Incident Reporting System records because they are not injuries occurring in response to an incident, said Brad Pabody, Chief of the National Fire Data Center.

Even without concrete numbers, traffic woes and the potential risk of injury have sparked concern among city officials.

In the past ten years, a mishmash of solicitation bans, aggressive panhandling bans and curbside collection bans have created new barriers for firefighters raising money on the road.

In Oklahoma City, Councilwoman Meg Salyer introduced a median solicitation ban in early September driven by citizens’ safety concerns. “When you stand in a median, essentially you have traffic coming at you in three ways,” Salyer said. “There is potential for all types of bad things to happen.”

Nearly half of all traffic accidents in Oklahoma City in the past five years happened at intersections, according to Oklahoma City Police spokesman Cpt. Paco Balderrama, citing research done for Salyer’s proposal. However, no firefighters have been injured.

Charity organizations like the Muscular Dystrophy Association are aware of these anti-solicitation trends -- so much so that their “Fill-the-Boot” handbook gives fire fighters tips to work around the politics.

“Know the ordinances ... get endorsements from city, county and state officials ... be prepared for changes in legislation,” the handbook reads, further advising “Fill the Boot” coordinators to invite politicians to visit the summer camps for kids with Muscular Dystrophy.

Despite these efforts, cities such as Marshfield, Wis., aren’t backing down.

“Having one employee of the Fire Department struck by a vehicle is one too many,” City Engineer Tom Turchi wrote in his recommendation to the Marshfield Board of Public Works to reject the fire department’s fundraising permit request.

As in Oklahoma City, the majority of accidents in Marshfield, Wis. happen in intersections, Turchi said. “We are keeping it from becoming a problem.”

For organizations like MDA and IAFF, these barriers mean fire fighters have to find alternatives.

“In some cities you see them doing the traditional fill the boot, in other cities you see them in parking lots,” Olivas said.

Benefit and risk

Parking lots have a different drawback.

The roadside “Fill the Boot” events are some of fire departments’ most lucrative fundraising campaigns, collectively bringing in tens of millions of dollars a year. This year fire departments in Fairfax County, Va., alone raised $615,945.44 for efforts to cure Muscular Dystrophy.

Dallas County, Texas fire departments raised $577,000 for the same cause. Even in more rural areas, the efforts have raised thousands of dollars.

In the MDA boot drive, the money goes directly toward research and services to help families living with Muscular Dystrophy or ALS. “When we fill the boot I see the translation of that money into years for these kids,” Lopez said.

MDA attributes the differences in fundraising levels to how established the “Fill the Boot” tradition is in the area, Olivas said. Areas like Jacksonville, Fla., and Fairfax, Va., have historically high donation numbers.

A review of donations shows that busy intersections bring in more donations than busy supermarket parking lots.

In 2009, St. Andrews Fire Department in Charleston, S.C. decided to pull back their teams to super markets, malls and parking lots. The safer environment also led to more than a 50% decline in contributions, St. Andrews Fire Department Deputy Fire Chief Ken Fischer said.

Marshfield, Wis., a city of about 19,000, raised around $500 at a Mayor’s luncheon last year according to Brad Breuer, president of the Marshfield Fire Fighters Local 1021. This year they collected $1,500 at a local chain grocery store. But in 2014, Rhinelander, Wis., a city of only 7,500 people, raised more than $12,000 roadside.

“Firefighters try and help everybody,” Lopez said. “If we are going to say, try something else that will only raise a quarter of [what we’ve been raising], it isn’t going to help.”

Organizers say safety is their primary priority and they have been advising firefighters go to intersections with easily accessible center-divides or shoulders. Participants are instructed to only step into traffic at red lights and toward stopped vehicles and to put up signs alerting motorists to the firefighters ahead.

“These are trained public safety officers,” Olivas said. “They are trained to handle difficult situations. Safety is absolutely a priority in what they do and with what they do for us.”

When tragic incidents like Rodeman’s occur, it isn’t for a lack of safety precautions -- it can happen anywhere, Lopez said. “They did everything right. You can’t write policy around this.”

As with all MDA sponsored events, the organization covers roadside firefighters with an insurance policy. In cities like Tallahassee, the fire department is required to have at least $1 million in liability insurance to apply for a special solicitation permit.

The firefighter, Girl Scout and the common beggar

Salyer, the Oklahoma City councilwoman, said she wants to be clear: regardless of who is on the median, whether it be a panhandler, church group or a firefighter, intersections are not safe.

“If the Girl Scouts chose using medians as their business model to sell cookies, the community would likely be in an uproar,” Salyer said. “This is a dangerous place people are doing business.”

Nonetheless, the tradition has remained strong in many parts of the country. In Jacksonville, firefighters have been known to bring motor homes to the drives to fundraise on and off duty. In Fairfax County, departments compete with one another to incentivize better turnout. In Dallas, fire departments raised more than $500,000 on behalf of a member of their team.

“It is an established fundraising mechanism,” Lopez said. “Taking this away it is going to hurt [MDA]. We are their number one sponsor hands down and if all the cities say you can’t do this then it will hurt them.”

“The goal is to find the cure.”

But just as the Jerry Lewis Labor Day telethon came and went, “times change,” Salyer said.