City of Henderson firefighters know that the next call they get could involve saving someone’s life. It’s what they train for.

For the past seven or eight years, however, the firefighters at Central Station One on Dabney Drive have taken to the street – literally – to help fight a different battle, one that can be just as deadly as a house fire or car crash.

Firefighters take to the busy street in front of the station to conduct their “fill the boot” campaign and donated all the proceeds to the Angel Fund at Maria Parham Health’s Cancer Center. This year’s three-day effort netted a whopping $19,611, which Chief Tim Twisdale presented to cancer center staff on Monday afternoon. In remarks to the group following the check presentation, Cancer Center Director Kimberly Smith remembered former Chief Steve Cordell, who lost his battle with cancer in January 2023. “This was always something special to him,” Smith said of the Angel Fund project. “So we decided we were going to name it the Steve Cordell Angel Fund moving forward.”

City Manager Terrell Blackmon said this is the second year that Cordell has not been a part of the check presentation. “He was a big, strong proponent of this effort,” Blackmon said.

Chief Twisdale presented the check to hospital staff, and said he hopes the tradition will continue. “It warms our hearts to be able to do this every year,” Twisdale said. “We count you guys as a big part of that blessing…taking care of us and the community.”

Thanks also go to all those who donated over the course of the three days of the campaign, Battalion Chief Lee Edmonds said later. None of it would be possible without community support, he said.

Those tall boots got filled while firefighters held up traffic with their singing, dancing, just having a good time to support a good cause, Twisdale said.

The coins and bills that added up to the more than $19,000 donation helps cancer patients with transportation, medicine, food and more, said MPH Social Worker Hope Breedlove.

“Transportation is a huge barrier to care,” Breedlove said, adding that the Angel Fund has provided 1,072 rides since mid-January 2024. That averages out to about 5 rides per treatment day.

One gentleman had to come to the clinic twice a week for treatment, and it wasn’t that he didn’t have a car – he simply was too sick to drive himself.

“A lot of good people come into the clinic – this is great to help them bridge the gap,” she said.

Heather Endecott is an RN who works in the clinic side of the cancer center. She said the Angel Fund, in addition to the transportation support, has helped provide oral chemotherapy to some patients for years, indicating that the much-needed medications are helping people get effective treatment and live longer lives.

The Angel Fund has helped 78 families with gas, 66 families with food and countless others get medicine.

“Medication is a big area that we spend a lot of time helping (with), life sustaining medicines, medicines to control their symptoms, medicines to keep them out of the hospital, medicines to keep them from having to call 911 in the middle of the night,” Smith said.

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