A handful of firefighters gathering donations at a street intersection in 1998 sparked what has grown into the Central Arkansas Firefighters Christmas Boot Drive — a fundraiser that has helped 12,000 children and raised $444,000 so far.
Starting Friday, the firefighters will be back at it.
Firefighters in Conway, Greenbrier and Vilonia, their friends and families will be stationed from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in several Faulkner County locations, holding firefighter boots for people to drop in donations.
Organizer Billie Carter, a Conway firefighter, said this could be a milestone year.
“We’re looking at breaking the 300-family mark and over 1,200 children this year,” he said.
Last year, firefighters raised a record $54,000.
“This year, we need $56,000 to get to half a million. I’ve never set a money goal before because I didn’t want to, quote, jinx myself, and we just left it in God’s hands,” Carter said. “God’s always willing; we’ve just got to do our part.”
The fundraiser will continue from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Dec. 5 and 12.
Each child will get a shirt, pants, shoes, a toy and dental supplies, and each family will receive a food box, Carter said.
“We do all the shopping,” Carter said. “Firefighters love helping people, and this is just an extension of that.”
He said the item he’s most proud of providing each child is a Bible. The Bibles are donated by state Sen. Jason Rapert, R-Conway, and Holy Ghost Ministries.
“We hand-write every child’s name in every Bible,” he said. Carter said that’s the firefighters’ low-key way of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “If that doesn’t make your heart swell, I don’t know what will.”
Names of recipients are provided by counselors and teachers at 27 educational entities, primarily schools.
“They know who needs it and who doesn’t,” Carter said.
Tanisha Minter, counselor at Florence Mattison Elementary School in Conway, said she provided names of about 15 families that need help.
“We always have an overwhelming amount of people who need things,” Minter said. She said Florence Mattison serves free and reduced-price lunches to about 76 percent of the school’s families.
“This year, we had a family that their house burned. We had one that, just last week with all the rain, their house flooded, and they lost everything — and no insurance. It breaks your heart, really,” Minter said.
“It never fails — every year, I always have people crying and saying thank you for the help, not only just the gifts, but the food they give, as well.”
For the first few years, the firefighters delivered presents to children at their homes.
“We had some tearjerker stories,” Carter said. Parents or grandparents who opened their doors “cried and said we were an answer to their prayers.”
The program outgrew the home-delivery system, Carter said, and now the gifts are taken back to the schools to be distributed. He said teachers often report that they see children come to school wearing much-needed new shoes and clothes, and children often write thank-you letters to firefighters or send pages from coloring books.
Firefighter Mark McEntire brought the idea to the Conway Fire Department 17 years ago. A handful of Conway firefighters stood at a four-way intersection and raised $1,700 and bought food boxes for about 24 families, Carter said.
In 2000, the project became the Conway Firefighters Union 4016 Fill the Boot Drive. As more firefighters throughout Faulkner County participated, a nonprofit organization was formed, and the name was changed to Central Arkansas Firefighters Christmas Boot Drive to reflect that — and Carter’s optimism that the effort might spread to other counties.
“This is more fitting, and it encompasses everybody and gives us room to grow,” Carter said. The organization is overseen by a 15-member board, of which Carter is the director.
He said this year’s fundraiser is being dedicated to the late Wayne Hartness, a Conway firefighter and former volunteer fire chief in Wooster, who died in September.
“He was one of the guys who would use his vacation days to come out and collect, come out and wrap,” Carter said.
A large group of volunteers gets together each year for a gift-wrapping party, he said.
“We’ve had firemen break down and cry because they see a relative’s name on the box,” he said. “We hope to touch the lives of the children — that’s our ultimate goal — and sometimes we get our lives touched just helping.”
Businesses can participate by having a boot displayed to collect money, and there is a competition each year to see who can raise the most funds. The winner gets a traveling trophy, a bronzed boot. About 70 businesses are participating this year, he said.
“Whoever wins gets the trophy for a year, gets their name on it and bragging rights,” he said. “We all like a little competition and a pat on the back when we do a good job. The bottom line is, it’s for the kids.”
Donations may also be mailed to Christmas Boot Drive, P.O. Box 2546, Conway AR 72033.
“Our goal is to meet that half million,” Carter said.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.