Just before Labor Day each year you probably have seen firefighters out shaking the boot for Muscular Dystrophy.  The Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon is held on TV every year on Labor Day with Jerry Lewis and others raising money for research and treatment of this disease.

To help kids with MD is the motivating factor that gets firefighters* out on the street corners in late August in the stifling heat and humidity of our area to collect for MD.  And if that were not motivation enough, Michael Waits, a 35 year old Shreveport Firefighter has MD. 

Watch this KSLA TV Channel 12 story about Mike.  Help if you can.

Muscular dystrophy is a disease in which the muscles of the body get weaker and weaker and slowly stop working. Muscles and membranes need many different kinds of proteins to stay healthy. When you hear the word "protein" you might think of food because food, such as meat and peanut butter, contains protein. But we're talking about another kind of protein - the kind your body actually creates. Your genes tell your body how to make the proteins your muscles need. But in people with MD, these genes have wrong information or leave out important information, so the body can't make these proteins properly.

Without these proteins, the muscles break down and weaken over time. As this happens to muscles, people with MD begin to have problems with the way their bodies work.

* Firefighters all over the USA collect for Muscular Dystrophy.