ERFD Hawks Papers for Charity

East Ridge firefighter Travis Ezell approaches a car at McDonald’s, Friday morning, as the department helped out in the “Day of Change” benefit for the Ronald McDonald House.

The East Ridge Fire Department set up shop in the parking lot of McDonald’s on Ringgold Road Friday morning and helped raise money for local Ronald McDonald House Charities.

With engine No. 1 broadside to the highway, firefighters raised copies of the Chattanooga Times Free Press over their heads and asked for people entering the parking lot to contribute what they could to help the Ronald McDonald House. In exchange they would get an edition of the TFP hot off the press.

Billed as “Day of Change,” the ERFD teamed with the Times Free Press to raise money. Anyone who bought a newspaper for more than a quarter would have the extra money go to the Ronald McDonald House.

Fire Marshal Kenny Custer said that the ERFD has participated in the effort over the years. By this afternoon Custer should have the amount of money collected at the Ringgold Road location.

Of course, in the middle of the fundraising effort, duty called. The firefighters were dispatched to an automatic fire alarm call in the 3300 block of Ringgold Road. The newspapers and the aprons used to hold the donations were quickly put aside and the men scrambled to Engine 1 and several support vehicles and off they went with sirens screaming and emergency lights activated.

All in a day’s work for these guys.

Custer went and got a handheld radio to monitor the fire alarm call and went back to hawking papers for the cause.

East Ridge firefighters respond to a vehicle that is not ablaze, Friday morning, to solicit donations for the Ronald McDonald House during the “Day of Change” event.

About Dick Cook

Dick Cook has lived in East Ridge since the Kennedy Administration when his parents bought a house on Marietta Street. Dick graduated from ERHS in 1976 before going on to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga where he studied Political Science. Dick worked for the Chattanooga Free-Press and the Chattanooga Times Free Press for 22 years. Free-Press Sports Editor Roy Exum plucked him out of production in 1989 and gave him a job as a sports reporter. Dick covered everything from prep sports to the whitewater events on the Ocoee River for the 1996 Olympics. When Chattanooga's two paper's merged, he became the Crime Reporter covering both the Chattanooga Police and Fire Departments. He was among reporters who were honored by the Associated Press for the TFP's coverage of the 2002 fog-shrouded crash on I-75 in Catoosa County, Dick and his wife, Cathy, live on Marlboro Avenue where they are seen frequently chasing around their three grandsons.