Since 1995, the city's fire department has raised more money each year for the Muscular Dystrophy Association than any other non-union fire department in the United States. The 100-person department raises, on average, $94,000 each year.
In fact, the MDA started giving a Golden Ax award each year since 1995 to the fire department in Georgia that raised the most money, and the Warner Robins department has gotten the ax each year.
"MDA has developed a life of its own within our department," Fire Chief Robert Singletary said. "It's kind of routine for us to do things."
Each year from April through Labor Day, the department engages in boot drives, golf tournaments, art auctions and other events to raise money for MDA. The charity collects money for research on neuromuscular diseases.
Singletary said the boot campaigns, which find firefighters standing outside Wal-Mart and other stores collecting donations, are by far the most successful and can raise $15,000 in a good weekend.
In the past year, the department raised $130,650 for the charity for a total of more than $1.5 million since they began in 1989. By comparison, Singletary said, the much larger Los Angeles county fire department raised about $300,000.
Earlier this month, the department presented its latest golden ax to the Warner Robins mayor and City Council, and the ax, along with a running total of donations, will hang in City Hall.
Mayor Donald Walker said the department's success has depended largely on the generosity of people who live here.
"A community our size gives more money than a community twice our size, and that says a lot about our fire department and our firefighters and it says a lot about our citizens," Walker said.
So why do the firefighters spend hours and hours, many of them off-duty, to raise money for this charity?
"Because we can," Singletary said. "We all wish we didn't have to do it, but we all do it because the effort we put into it is the money that will hopefully help."
