A new local ordinance will now prohibit the Chesapeake Fire Department from collecting donations on area roads to benefit muscular dystrophy research.
We've all driven through one of these: firefighters gathered on an exit ramp or in an intersection soliciting donations from drivers. Many times, these "Fill the Boot" fundraisers are so that fire houses can purchase new equipment. However, the Chesapeake Fire Department's fundraiser goes to a different cause: muscular dystrophy research. Every year, usually during a two-week window in August, firefighters take to the streets of Chesapeake in uniform to solicit donations to fight this disease.
Muscular dystrophy is a disease that causes the progressive loss of muscle mass, dramatically impacting patients' standard of living. There is currently no cure for muscular dystrophy, meaning that the only treatment is to hide the symptoms or try to slow the disease's progression. This year, the Chesapeake Fire Department raised more than $100,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. For next year, the firefighters are going to need to reassess how they raise money now that the Chesapeake council voted unanimously to pass a "solicitation ordinance."
The vote was held last Tuesday and implements a ban on panhandling and other sorts of street begging. The ordinance was pushed after a noticeable increase in panhandling on area streets and roads.
Most notable is the fact that the ordinance applies to everyone. There are a few exemptions carved out for emergency personnel, permitted individuals, and parades, however there is no exception for charitable fundraising. That means that the Chesapeake Fire Department's successful 17-year fundraising tradition will likely be coming to an end in 2018.
“It’s brand new to us,” said Fire Captain Scott Saunders. “We’re going to have to step back and examine how we do collections next year.”The new ordinance also will levy fines on vehicles that stop at green lights unless they are yielding to other traffic. Pedestrians are also no longer allowed to "stand, sit, squat, or lie in between motor vehicle traffic lanes on any public right of way." This provision explicitly bans the fire department's practice of soliciting donations from stopped vehicles. The inclusion of "sit, squat, or lie" means that this ordinance goes even further. It seems to directly target recent political protest strategies used by organizations such as Black Lives Matter around the country to sit or lie in the road to deliberately disrupt traffic. Chesapeake Councilman Robert Ike actually admitted that he had no problem with the firefighters panhandling for a good cause. However, he said that when he saw a high school football team doing the same thing, darting in an out of traffic to collect coins from cars, he felt the need to impose the ban. He feared that crafting an exemption for one group would lead to expensive legal battles over the constitutionality of the ordinance.
"We either allow people to do it or we don't," the councilman explained. "Erring on the side of public safety, this is probably the best that we could do to keep us out of trouble with the Supreme Court."
The local firefighters are confident that they'll be able to figure out a way to have a successful fundraising campaign in the summer of 2018, however, they admit that the ordinance will probably make it harder to raise as much money as they typically do.
What do you think? Should Chesapeake and surrounding towns ban panhandling, even for charitable causes like this? Let us know in the comment section below!