Red Shirt Fridays

Green Bay, WI, January 26, 2010- The Green Bay Fire Department (GBFD) joins the nationwide movement “Red Shirt Fridays” in an effort to show solidarity in support of our U.S. soldiers. Every Friday members of the GBFD have the option to wear a traditional GBFD t-shirt, with the department’s logo on the front and “GBFD Supports Our Troops” on the back, in red. The shirts will be worn every Friday indefinitely and until all the U.S. troops return home.  Friday January 29th, will be the official start of the “Red Shirt Friday’s” for the Green Bay Fire Department.

The shirts are also being sold to the public for $10 each at select fire stations. All net proceeds will go to;

The red t-shirts come in adult sizes S-3XL, children sizes XS-L, cash or checks are accepted. The t-shirts are available at the following fire stations between the hours of 1pm-6pm:

 

Red Shirt fund from the Green Bay Fire Department donates some proceeds to Old Dogs That Care on September 18,2011.

The below text is taken from the story that aired on WFRV...

Two former Marines calling themselves Old Dogs That Care embarked on a 100 mile march across the state. Shannon Anker and Chad Hintz care about their country and the men and women serving it.

"We're just trying to raise awareness because sometimes people get a bit forgetful of what's going on overseas. You know, they forget about our young brothers and sisters oversees fighting for us to give us the freedoms we take for granted everyday," said former Marine Chad Hintz.

Each man put his best foot forward to raise money to fund care-packages for the troops.

"A lot of people don't realize there are a lot of people serving that don't have support. They don't have family members sending them care packages or letters even," Shannon Anker said.

The self-described "Old Dogs" began their trek at Rib Mountain Thursday afternoon. They walked 10 hours the first day.

"Second day we walked about 14 hours. Yesterday we walked the most we walked about 18 hours till almost midnight before we camped out," Hintz said.

The pounding of the pavement brought a pounding of pain, especially carrying a 70 pound backpack.

"It seems your blisters have blisters," Anker said. "The lower extremities kind of go numb. So, you just put your head down and go step by step." 

They say it was all worth it when they reached their destination, Lambeau Field. Believe it or not, they had the strength to run the last quarter mile. They ran into a cheering crowd of family, friends. and firefighters.  

The Green Bay Fire Department learned about the Old Dogs That Care and their journey just a few days ago from media reports. They showed up at Lambeau Field to greet the Old Dogs with a one thousand dollar check.

"For the past 2-and-a-half years we've been raising money from our red shirt sales, a national movement to support troops," said Lt. Jim Van Dyck of the Green Bay Fire Department. "One-hundred percent of the profits go to things like this, donations to the troops, something these guys did a nice job with."

That donation brought the total raised to over $2,000. That will fund the sending of more than 55 care packages. 

If you'd like to make a donation, you can send it to:
Old Dogs That Care
c/o Shannon Anker
430 C Nancy Lane #111
Pulaski, WI 54162

 
Pictures taken by Drew Spielman

 

  B company 2nd platoon 1/15 Infantry 3rd heavy brigade combat team.
     Fob Echo near Najaf, Iraq.

 

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