This weekend and next weekend you might see firefighters and fire trucks outside several grocery stores and other locations, but there’s no reason to panic because they’re out there for the Columbia County Fire Rescue Annual Boot Drive.
The boot drive has been going on for at least 29 years, said Fire Chief Jeremy Wallen. When it first started, it was held in-line with the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon, and people would bring their donations to the Augusta Mall. But that later changed because the desire was to collect for local organizations.
“I think the reason we changed up is because we’re between markets, and they wouldn’t let us be in the Georgia market,” Wallen said. “So, we weren’t collecting locally; we were funding Columbia, S.C. and those operations. Now, they did come down as far as MCG at the time, so it’s not like we were totally giving it away; it’s a national foundation. But we really started wanting to do something that we could be more participatory with and not just hand off money. We wanted to be involved.”
Over the two weekends, the boot drive usually brings in between $60,000 and $75,000 that is split between two organizations, Wallen said. The first is the Burn Foundation of America, which is located near Doctors Hospital and helps families of burn victims.
“They run housing and food and some medications that they provide to the families of burn victims that are coming in and need somewhere to stay for potentially an extended term, as well as firefighters come in from half the country when they’re burned,” Wallen said. “They let us know when they’re being brought in, and we try to go over with them and greet and spend time with the family. We’ll even have meals for them at the fire station and just bring them over and be a part of that fire community. We’ve always been very supportive of them, I have members on their Board of Directors that help with that organization.”
The other organization that boot drive benefits is Columbia County Community Connections, Wallen said. The organization has multiple programs that benefit children in Columbia County, and in fact, the campus shares a parcel with one of the Columbia County fire stations.
“They go over and mentor the kids in the after-school program, spend time with them,” Wallen said. “Community Connections, we take about 22 of those kids shopping for Christmas every year with the Shop with a Firefighter Program.”
The firefighters will be set up at four locations throughout the county and at some of the locations will have fire trucks set up for community members to see.
“We show kids the trucks. We’re not in the street. We try to be in safe locations were we can set up the trucks and sort of be interactive, and we get a lot of time to do that,” Wallen said. “…these firefighter medics, they love showing off the stuff. They’re proud of their tools and their skills, and they like spending time with the kids because those big smiles make it all worth it.”
The boot drive held over two weekends, May 4-6 and May 11-13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Kroger in Grovetown, Mullins Colony, Evans Wal-Mart and the Furys Ferry Road Wal-Mart.
Following the boot drive, checks will be presented to the two organizations at a future Columbia County Board of Commissioners meeting, said Cassidy Harris, the communications officer for Columbia County.
Stephanie Hill is a staff writer covering Columbia County government for The Augusta Press. Reach her at stephanie@theaugustapress.com
