The Milles for MnFIRE, is a 150 mile walk to raise funds and spread awareness of physical and mental health issues firefighters experience.
Nine out of ten firefighters in Minnesota are non-career or volunteers. That means they have limited access to their department’s health and wellness benefits. The Minnesota Firefighter Initiative, MnFIRE, is spreading awareness about this issue. Their annual walk Miles for MnFIRE is raising funds to help the men and women who save lives every day.
Two firefighters are taking the first steps of this 150-mile journey from Duluth to the Minnesota fallen firefighter memorial at the state capitol in St. Paul. Doug Foote and Kyle Bode are walking through countless communities to spread awareness of health risks for emergency personnel.
“Firefighters are there for us on our darkest days, and that’s the case. I believe that MnFIRE is there for firefighters on our toughest day. I hope people feel inspired, I think sometimes people are looking for hope, and this walk is about hope,” Doug said. “If people feel like donating, you can say to your friends, ‘Hey, what did you do this weekend?’ ‘Well, and I watched the Vikings game,’. They ask you what you did, ‘I helped every firefighter out in Minnesota,’ so that’s something that you can walk away with, by making a donation.
Doug started the Miles for MnFIRE annual walk five years ago. He says raising funds and spreading awareness about the health challenges firefighters risk in their lives is what keeps him walking every year.
“About half of the entire country’s firefighters, the line of duty deaths are being taken out by either stroke or by heart attack. Firefighters are at about a 14% higher rate of risk of dying from cancer. We expect that this year, we’re probably gonna have the continuing trend of 100 firefighters committing suicide,” Doug said. “These data points are unacceptable, and that’s what MnFIRE is trying to do, is address these, get that awareness out there to firefighters because we don’t have to accept those statistics.”
The Miles for MnFIRE have a fundraising goal of a hundred thousand dollars. Before Doug and Kyle even started their long walk, the nonprofit received donations of over $34,000 so far this year. Kyle says some MnFIRE is stepping up to provide the necessary support that these men and women need, when other fire departments don’t have the resources or benefits.
“The majority of the state is volunteers, 90% of the firefighters in the state. A lot of those departments don’t have health and wellness resources. MnFIRE provides a lot of the health resources that fills that gap. I’ve had a lot of friends die from occupational disease, from suicides to cancer, to cardiac issues, so it’s important to me.”
MnFIRE also receives funding through the state Legislature to help these first responders. Kyle says donations are always needed, however, to help provide mental health resources for firefighters, their spouses, and family members.
“We get money from the hometown heroes assistance program, but that doesn’t cover all the costs of all the programming that MNFIRE provides,” Kyle said. “By helping out MNFIRE, by donating to MNFIRE, you’re helping your local firefighters, and making a safer community.”
