The year was 1954. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the White House home, a gallon of gas averaged 22 cents, and the television show “Father Knows Best” kept Americans captivated with Hollywood’s version of the perfect family. But, as explained in a 1954 article published in The Press-Gazette (Hillsboro, Ohio), no one knew best when it came to treating the estimated 200,000 Americans diagnosed with a strange ailment called muscular dystrophy. This “very costly disease,” the article explained, baffled researchers, and although the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), founded in 1950, was dedicated to “seeking the cause and a cure for this mysterious and fatal malady,” insufficient research funds kept progress at bay.

In the background, however, a relationship between MDA and the IAFF was heating up. This partnership would eventually produce a prolific fundraising endeavor called “Fill the Boot” — an annual donation drive that is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. Throughout its six-decade evolution, IAFF members across the United States and Canada have continually strengthened the Fill-the-Boot campaign, and today, the IAFF is MDA’s single-largest fundraising partner and most ardent crusader to find a cure for neuromuscular disease.

Fill-the-Boot began as a good deed, but as the annual drive grew in prominence, the IAFF soon became MDA’s largest national sponsor. In fact, the number of fire fighters who devoted their off-duty time to raise Fill-the-Boot funds grew so significantly and quickly that today the campaign helps to support research grants, as well as MDA summer camps for children, professional and public health education and numerous other acts of generosity and commitment.

Tom Boyle, MDA’s national vice president of organizational partnerships, sees today’s roughly 300,000 IAFF members’ dedication to MDA as an extension of their pledge to save lives — not only rescuing community citizens every day in the line of duty but also tirelessly helping to fund worldwide research efforts that will someday eradicate the 40-plus neuromuscular disorders under MDA’s umbrella.

“Fill-the-Boot is much larger than a fundraising drive — it represents the caring relationship between fire fighters and their communities,” Boyle explains. “Americans view these men and women as heroes, saving lives every day and asking for nothing in return — no glory, no heroic credit, no fame. So when we see these fire fighters on a street corner, holding their boot and MDA signs, it’s just natural for us to roll down the window and pitch in what we can. For many, I think it’s a way of giving back to the heroes who so selflessly give to others.”

Since 1954, IAFF has pulled in more than $500 million for MDA, largely through the signature MDA Fill-the-Boot campaign. In recent years, IAFF affiliates have added a few more creative fundraising endeavors, including golf events, bowl-a-thons and softball tournaments. As a result, the IAFF’s ongoing support allows MDA to fund more than 200 research projects around the world, maintain a nationwide network of 200 medical clinics — including more than 40 MDA/ALS centers — for diagnostic and follow-up care, provide equipment repairs for those in need, and sponsor nearly 80 summer camps — all free-of-charge for campers and created specifically for young people with neuromuscular diseases.

“This program would be impossible without the thousands who devote their time to our campers, and chief among these are members of the IAFF,” says Boyle.

IAFF General President Harold Schaitberger says the reason these two organizations keep expanding their relationship is really quite simple. “We both care. Our members care about the citizens they serve. They coach little league games and build ramps for those who are physically impaired. That’s in addition to the incredible work they do professionally. And it’s clear that MDA cares just as much about the people they serve.”

Schaitberger continues, “So when a fire fighter holds out that boot in Phoenix, standing in 105-degree heat, or in Cleveland, raising funds in near zero temperatures, they know that their personal commitment will benefit only those with muscular dystrophy. This level of trust made our relationship with MDA work back in 1954 — and until there is a cure, we plan to continue the partnership.”

Last year’s Fill-the-Boot efforts are proof that this partnership continues to thrive. With IAFF members raising more than $26 million in the United States in 2013, and their Canadian counterparts adding another $2.5 million, MDA-funded research has even more support in its quest for that elusive cure.

History of the Long-Standing, 60-year Commitment Between MDA and the IAFF

In 1952, Charles J. Crowley and his wife, Geraldine, were raising their two sons, both affected by muscular dystrophy. While the family comfortably provided the best life possible for their boys, Crowley looked into a metaphorical crystal ball and saw no future hope for children like his own.

“He just couldn’t sit by and do nothing,” explains Suzanne Crowley Blaszak, the Crowley’s third and youngest child. Today, Crowley Blaszak, a 61-year-old retired teacher, speaks often and joyfully about Fill-the-Boot — as someone who tirelessly worked all her life to raise such funds but also as someone living with muscular dystrophy herself, albeit a milder case than what eventually took her brothers’ lives.

It all began when Charles Crowley reached out to his good buddy and IAFF member George Graney for help to raise money in support of muscular dystrophy research. As the story goes, the two rounded up 20 additional fire fighters from Graney’s Boston Local 718 and set off for a neighborhood door-to-door canister drive, which raised an impressive $5,000. The success of that initial effort and subsequent drives prompted the co-founders to attend the IAFF 1954 National Convention in Miami, where it was proposed and unanimously approved that MDA would be forever more the IAFF’s “charity of choice.” That day, the fire fighters solidified their partnership with MDA, pledging that they will continue the fight until the battle is won.