When you drop your money into the boots held by Whitfield County firefighters this weekend, you’ll be helping them help kids who have suffered burn injuries, just like always. But there are a couple of new twists this year.
For the first time, the firefighters have a new partner in their boot drive - the Dalton Shriners - and both organizations will be collecting donations together at the usual five locations around the county on Saturday, Sept. 17 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Firefighters and Shriners will be accepting donations at the following intersections:
Station 1 – Cleveland Highway and the North Bypass
Stations 2 and 10 – Cleveland Highway and Ga. Highway 2
Stations 3 and 8 – Airport Road and Chatsworth Highway
Stations 4 and 5 – Highway 41 and Connector 3
Stations 6, 7, and 9 – Highway 201 and Highway 41
“For the past six years, we’ve teamed up with the Georgia Firefighters Burn Foundation,” Lt. Chris West said, “but we’ve been approached by the Shriners several times in the past about the possibility of working together. We felt like this year, we would take a break from the Burn Foundation and team up with the Shriners and follow the same process we always have.”
Appropriately enough, the name of the drive will be “Whitfield Firefighters and Dalton Shriners Team Up for Kids.”
In the past, the firefighters have collected anywhere from $14,000 to $17,000, West said, and he’s hopeful they can match or beat that amount this year.
“We found out that 100 percent of the money collected by the Shriners goes straight to their hospitals to pay for the treatment of kids,” West said, “and that impressed us.”
Seventy-five percent of the money collected here will go towards treating young burn victims at Shriners’
hospitals, including one in Cincinnati supported by the Dalton Shriners, and the other 25 percent will go toward a new program for the Whitfield firefighters called “Santa in Uniform.”
West said the firefighters hope to have enough money to buy $100 worth of Christmas presents for 25 underprivileged children to be selected by local school counselors and the Department of Family and Children Services.
“These kids will meet at one location, and we’ll bus them to a fire station and then take them to the mall to have their picture made with Santa,” West said. “Then we’ll take them to Wal-Mart, and each one of them will be teamed with a firefighter from the Whitfield County Fire Department. They’ll shop and get to purchase $100 worth of toys each.”
The kids will then be carried back to the fire station, where they’ll enjoy pizza and cake and receive their toys before heading home with their families.
“We’ve seen this program done at other departments,” West said, “and it seemed like it really worked. Our guys are really on board with it.”
West emphasized the firefighters want the public to know all the money they give on Sept. 17 will be used to help children.
“We’re not collecting money for the Whitfield County Fire Department,” he said. “We want people to know that we’re not out there in those intersections collecting money to buy equipment for us. We’re there for a cause, and that cause is to help kids.”
While the Shriners help children with various ailments, the fire department has requested that donations collected on Sept. 17go to take care of young burn victims.
“Nothing against traumatic injury,” West said. “We’re all for helping them, too, but since we’re the fire department, we just decided we want all that money to go towards helping kids that get burned.”