Donations down for Fill the Boot fundraiser

A fundraiser that benefits muscular dystrophy gathered about $4,000 less than last year, the first time the total has decreased in at least four years – and organizers blame the city’s ordinance against panhandling for the dip.

The firefighters participating in this year’s Fill the Boot fundraiser, which funds research and programs for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, were not allowed to use median islands in the way they have in past years. The firefighters had a goal to surpass last year’s total of $11,296, but came up short with about $7,500, according to Chad Englert, the local union president.

To attempt to curb panhandling, the city passed an ordinance in November 2013 that makes it a misdemeanor to use certain median islands in town as anything other than a place to wait to cross the street. So fundraising of any kind is prohibited on those medians.

“Not being able to be out in the median definitely hurt us,” Englert said.

The ordinance applies to the medians of Auto Center Drive, Olive and Yosemite avenues, as well as G, M, R and V streets. The city also added Martin Luther King Jr. Way north of Highway 99 to that list. The fundraiser took place at the intersection of Olive Avenue and G Street.

The amount of money collected in the fundraiser in Merced has increased each of the past four years, according to numbers from the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The firefighters who participate in the day are volunteering their time. The firefighters stayed off the medians for the most part, Englert said, but the fire station received calls complaining that some of them were spotted on the median.

Englert said the union will have to think about whether participating in the fundraiser next year because of the complaints and a significantly lower total.

City Hall did not receive any complaints about firefighters on medians, according to Mike Conway, spokesman for the city. The city attorney’s office confirmed that the ordinance does not make an exception for Fill the Boot.

Carrie Danny, executive director for the Muscular Dystrophy Association in this region, said she was grateful for money that came in but was disappointed to fall short of the goal. Without the firefighters on the medians, the effort was less visible and may have missed some donations.

“Merced is actually a very generous, very giving community, and I’m sure that there are people who would have given but really just didn’t have the opportunity,” she said.

The association gets no federal funding, she said, and relies heavily on donations. The money pays for research on diseases that affect muscles, helps low-income families whose children have a muscle disease, and benefits the support groups for those families, as well as pays for a summer camp for children with muscular dystrophy.

Councilman Mike Murphy, whose son has muscular dystrophy, said he believes the council is interested in keeping an eye on the ordinance’s effects. He said perhaps the council could look at what other cities have done to make room for such a fundraiser.

“I think the ordinance probably had something to do with the decrease in the amount of contributions,” he said. “The ordinance makes it more challenging for the firefighters to collect money.”

This story was originally published October 28, 2014 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Donations down for Fill the Boot fundraiser."