CHATTANOOGA, TN - June
14,2006 - A local music festival at the City Of Chattanooga's Riverfront was
the location of an impressive show of support. Just outside of the main gate of the
music festival, in front of the very popular Tennessee Aquarium, was parked
the newest piece of equipment, Quint 6, being added to the City Of
Chattanooga Fire Department. Captain Doug Randolph, with the City Of
Chattanooga Fire Department, invited a large number of firefighters from the
surrounding area to come join fellow Chattanooga firefighters as they held
a boot drop for MDA. Along with the boot drop and the new piece of fire
equipment, Lynnco Custom Cycles, out of Cleveland TN, brought several
custom cycles that will be auctioned off later in the year for several
different charitable organizations including MDA and IAFF's Burn Fund.
Chattanooga City Mayor Ron
Littlefield, Chattanooga City Council Members Linda Bennett, Marti
Rutherford, and Manuel Rico, all stopped by to show their support for the
amazing job that all these people were doing to help children. Mayor Ron
Littlefield spent some time speaking to a child who suffers from Muscular
Dystrophy, while the
Council Members spoke to MDA representatives and firefighters about positive
advancements
and progress in the field of Muscular Dystrophy. The amount of participation and support for this was
absolutely amazing. Captain Randolph said that he never expected to have
this much support. Captain Randolph said that the turn out of firefighters
from the neighboring departments was extremely encouraging to the cause.
Captain Randolph became momentarily choked up as he said, "If all this can
help one child it was worth it." Captain Randolph held back his emotions as
Nanon Morrison, Director of The Chattanooga District of MDA, was explaining about some new medication that is in an
experimental stage. This medication could help and maybe even cure two of
the 43 different forms
of Muscular Dystrophy, Duchene's and Ponpe. The money that is collected from these boot drop's go directly to
this cause.
Lynn Jones, owner of Lynnco
Custom Cycle : www.lynncocustomcycles.com, out of Cleveland Tennessee builds
custom cycles just for children's charity auctions. They have built several
award winning cycles including "Paragon", "El-Mirage", "Kiss My Wheels", "My
Friend", "Peacemaker", "Bombshell", and the newest to their collection is
"The Bravest". Lynn Jones is quoted on his website : www.lynnjonesfoundation.org
as saying, "it's all about the children". This is why the Lynn Jones
Foundation was started. The Lynn Jones Foundation supports children's
charity organizations. Lynn Jones was at the event to and just as
encouraging as always, said a number of people. Lynn Jones shows a lot of
enthusiasm during events such as these and it quickly spreads encouragement
among the people helping.
City of Chattanooga
Firefighters, Lookout Mountain Firefighters, Signal Mountain Firefighters,
Cleveland Firefighters, and members of the motorcycle club the Unwanted, all
carried boots around the crowds collecting money for MDA. Tom Davidson a
local franchise owner of Firehouse Subs and a avid supporter of MDA was also
there to help. Tom donated several trays of subs and drinks for the
volunteers and also brought to display, the newest tradition to the
firehouse sub chain, a new firehouse subs fire chief vehicle.
The local Chattanooga
Tennessee festival is an annual week long event and this year was no
different. A lot of volunteers, a lot of long hours, and a lot of organizing
has collected more than $16,000 at this event. This money will go directly to help find a cure for
Muscular Dystrophy. Although Captain Doug
Randolph is due to retire this year, he said he would be back next year to
help too, because "it's all about the children".
Story and photos by Bill
Carson
