Boy with juvenile dermatomyositis scores a touchdown

For more than 60 years, firefighters have teamed with MDA to fight back against muscular dystrophy, ALS and related life-threatening diseases.

For one firefighter, the cause became very personal when his son, Chandler Mallen, was diagnosed with juvenile dermatomyositis, a neuromuscular disease that involves inflammation of the muscles. When Chandler asked his father — Scott, a firefighter who has collected donations for MDA’s Fill the Boot program for almost 25 years — if he’d lose the use of his legs, he didn’t wait for an answer.

“Even if I do,” Chandler said, “I’ll never stop trying.”

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Honoring Dennis Rodeman at the IAFF Fallen Firefighter Memorial

In 1986, the International Association of Firefighters completed a permanent tribute to its members, the IAFF Fallen Firefighter Memorial, located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The Memorial was founded to recognize and honor past and future professional firefighters and emergency medical personnel who are killed in the line of duty and to provide assistance to the . . .

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Fire Fighters Across the Country will be Filling the Boot for MDA this Labor Day Weekend

This weekend, as you head out to BBQs and the beach, there’s a good chance you’ll encounter fire fighters collecting for MDA at intersections, shopping malls and town centers in your community. That’s because members of more than 700 local fire departments across the country, led by the International Association of Fire Fighters, are set . . .

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Boston Fire IAFF Local 718 & MDA Dedicate Statue in Honor of More than 60 Years of Partnership in the Fight Against Muscular Dystrophy

More than 100 Boston fire fighters and dignitaries, along with the the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF),  MDA and Boston Fire IAFF Local 718, united today on Memorial Sunday, an annual day to honor Boston’s fallen fire fighters, to celebrate more than 60 years of partnership in the fight against muscular dystrophy, ALS and . . .

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