The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) is the largest national sponsor of the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). More than 270,000 members of the IAFF in the United States and Canada are pledged to saving lives, both as fire fighters and paramedics and as the strongest campaigners for the worldwide research efforts of MDA to eradicate 40 neuromuscular diseases.

The contributions of the fire fighters also go towards MDA's summer camps for children, professional and public health education and for other programs.

As the greatest contributor to MDA, fire fighters are everywhere in the efforts to raise money. The IAFF is the biggest sponsor of MDA's Labor Day Telethon, and it contributed a record-breaking $20.3 million in 2004 as a consequence of the overwhelming enthusiasm and contribution of tens and thousands of fire fighters and paramedics across the U.S. and Canada.

The IAFF raised this amount throughout the entire year through their passionate &#8220Fill the Boot” campaigns, in which fire fighters greet motorists, shoppers and others and ask them to donate money to MDA. This year's upcoming IAFF-MDA events are expected to raise even more to cure these crushing illnesses.

George Graney of Boston, Mass., was the founder of the MDA &#8220Fill the Boot” fund drive. He died at the age of 90 in 2004. Graney retired from the fire service in 1969.

Please help by giving what you can this upcoming weekend and by giving each time you see a fire fighter standing in the middle of the street carrying the heavy boot, waiting for your contributions.

Every penny counts, and every penny helps toward the fight against muscular dystrophy.